
Class JQV^SOi 
Book ,^6f>7 



THE IDLE WORD 

SHORT RELIGIOUS ESSAYS 

UPON THE 

GIFT OF SPEECH, AND ITS EMPLOYMENT 
m CONVERSATION 

BY 

EDWAED MEYEICK GOULBUEN, D.D. 

DEAN OF NORWICH 



" As alphabets in ivory employ, 
Hour after hour, the yet unletter'd boy, 
Sorting and puzzling with a deal of glee 
Those seeds of science call'd his ABC; 
So language in the mouth of the adult 
(Witness its insignificant result) 
Too often proves an implement of play, 
A toy to sport with, and pass time away. 

Sacred interpreter of human thought, 

How few respect or use thee as they ought ! 

But all shall give account of every wrong, 

Who dare dishonour or defile the tongue." — Cowper. 

iSrj tftrj foorrjs thou sfjalt be justtfi'erj : 

Sno 60 tfiu footrjg tfjou sljalt be conrjemnerj." 



FOURTH EDITION 

RIVINGTONS 
Xontion, ©xfortf, antt Camfcrtog* 

POTT AND AMERY 
5 k 13, COOPER UNION, FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 

1867 



0>- 






In ifftemotg 

OF THE LATE 

EIGHT HON. HENRY GOULBURN, M.P., 

WHO HAS PASSED TO HIS REST 

SINCE THIS TREATISE 

ON THE GOVERNMENT OP THE TONGUE, 

A GRACE WHICH HE SINGULARLY 

EXEMPLIFIED, 

WAS FIRST INSCRIBED TO HIM. 



BV4S0S 
.GtS«?7 

If 4f 



By lOxchang^ 

Army And Na 






PREFACE. 



The reader of this little Book will soon discover from 
the style adopted in parts of it, that the substance of 
the several Chapters has been delivered in the form of 
Sermons. But the throwing of these Sermons into the 
form of short Religious Essays has given me the oppor- 
tunity of introducing matter unsuited for the Pulpit, 
and of erasing much which had only a special reference 
to the circumstances and temptations of my own flock. 
At the same time, I have felt unwilling (in this, as in 
a former, publication) to omit entirely all practical 
addresses and appeals of a devotional character, however 
out of place such passages may seem to be in an Essay. 
For indeed I feel that all exclusively speculative treat- 
ment of Religious Subjects (and specially of a subject 
having so close a bearing upon practice, as that with 
which the following Pages deal) is to be avoided. We 
do not think on these subjects aright, unless our minds 
are led on from the theory of them to the influence 
which they ought to exercise upon our practice, — un- 
less we allow them to stir within us the sentiments 



6 Preface. 

and aspirations of devotion. Nor, except we view them 
under this light, are we safe from erroneous conclusions 
respecting them. For right conclusions on Religious 
subjects cannot be formed by those who speculate upon 
them in a wrong, or in a defective, spirit. 

To some, I fear, the Rules of Conversation here pro- 
posed may appear too strict, and even impossible to be 
carried out. May I request that such Readers will 
consider, before they reject the Rules, what is said in 
Chapter VII. on Words of Innocent Recreation ? 

I may have erred doubtless in some of my applica- 
tions of it to practice, — but I camiot see my way to 
evade the general principle, that words, to redeem 
themselves from the charge of being idle, must fulfil 
some one of the ends which words were designed to fulfil. 
These ends are indicated at length in the body of the 
Work, and it only remains for me to say, that a wider 
scope should possibly be given to the term, " innocent 
recreation," than it was consistent with the nature of 
a religious essay to set forth. A great many words 
which cannot be justly called witty, or humorous, yet 
tend to relieve the burdens of life, and to lighten the 
heart with a gleam of merriment ; nor would it be 
possible to enter into any useful conversation without 
passing through the preliminary porch of lighter re- 
marks, and repartees upon ordinary topics. If such 
things were precluded, conversation would lose its ease 
and gaiety, and with these its power of refreshing the 
mind. To preserve this power (which ought always to 
attach to it) , while at the same time guarding against 



Preface. 7 

empty words, and the encroachment of a spirit of 
unwatchfulness, is doubtless an arduous task, — one of 
the most arduous perhaps which the Christian has to 
achieve ; but it is our encouragement and consolation 
to know that our Merciful Lord never commands im- 
possibilities, and offers us not only the guidance of 
general principles in His Word, but also Grace and 
Light to direct the individual conscience in its 
attempts to apply those principles to the conduct of 
daily life. 

E. M. G. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CO^EXIOS" OF SPEECH WITH EEASOtf. 

PAGE 
Our Lord's warning against idle words — The Old Testament 
warning on the same subject, and its position in the Decalogue — the 
indifference of words has a strong hold upon the mind, even of reli- 
gious people — Probable moral effects of the attempt to rectify our 
words — Importance of words deduced from the Connexion of Speech 
with Reason — The fact of this connexion — Inability of inanimate 
Nature to speak — Passionate appeals to Nature not responded to — 
The rational creature's response by Prayer (which is Speech) to 
God's appeal — Inability of animated Nature to speak — Animals 
can express only feeling, and not intelligence, by means of sound — 
The song of birds a thing of the same class with instrumental 
music — The wonderful amount of intelligence conveyed in a com- 
mon-place direction or instruction — Prayer and Praise the highest 
exercise of Speech — Consequent degradation of Speech by low or 
frivolous employment of it — the dignity of singing the Praises of 
God, as an exercise which combines both intelligence and feeling — 
Singing associated by the Inspired Writers with Glory — Con- 
clusion 15 

NOTE. 

On certain appearances resembling Speech in animals . . 26 

CHAPTER II. 

THE CO^EXION" OF SPEECH WITH EEASOH". 

Grounds and manner of the connexion, the subject of the present 
Chapter — We find the faculty of Speech in exercise, when Adam 



Contents. 9 

PAGE 
names the animals — Why are we never informed of man's endow- 
ment with this faculty? — Because the gift of language is involved in 
the gift of a rational soul, as colours are involved in the light — Im- 
propriety in supposing the names conferred by Adam to have been 
arbitrary — What is implied in the hypothesis that the names desig- 
nated the properties of the various animals, viz. : the mental pro- 
cesses of 1, Observation ; 2, Comparison ; 3, Classification — Classi- 
fication the great characteristic of the Reason — Shown from its 
being the special endowment of superior minds — Language expresses 
the classifications of the Reason — in the every -day employment of 
words, no one thinks of the mental processes which gave birth to 
them — Christ, as the Antitype of Adam, giving names to the 
Apostles — The probable meaning of the name Boanerges — Love, 
and impetuosity in behalf of the person loved, two sides of the 
same character — Digression on the spurious charity of the present 
day — Why the naming of the stars should be an attribute of the 
Divine Being — Our Lord sees our characters — What names would 
He bestow upon us, as significant of them ? 82 

NOTE. 

On Classification as the great function of the Reason . . 44 

CHAPTER III. 

THE HEAYEKLY ANALOGY OP THE CONNEXION OF 
SPEECH WITH REASON". 

The doctrine of the Trinity in Unity can never be thoroughly 
apprehended by the finite mind — Partial glimpses into its signifi- 
cance attainable — Reason and Speech closely intertwined — Re- 
capitulation — Distinctness of Reason and Speech — the first seen 
without the second — Impossibility of saying whether Reason or 
Speech is the earliest; they appear to be twin faculties, though 
distinct — Man made in the Image of God — this Image stands in 
the mind — this would warrant us in expecting to find in the mind 
some adumbration of the Divine Nature — The Second Person of 
the Blessed Trinity is called the Word — Illustration of the Doc- 
trine of the Trinity, by the conclusions which we have arrived at 
respecting Reason and Speech — How the statement " God is Love " 
seems to involve the notion of more than one Person in the God- 
head — Address to young men on the discoveries of consistency and 
beauty in the doctrines of Scriptures, by those who patiently wait 
for light in the study of God's Word — Dignity conferred upon 
Speech by Christ's having assumed the title of the Word . . 46 



10 Contents. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



XS IDLE WORD DEFINED EEOM THE DECALOGTTE. 

PAGE 

Large proportion of Scriptural precept directed against sins of the 
tongue — How this is an incidental evidence of Scripture's having 
come from a supernatural source — The tongue symptomatic of the 
moral state — Serious derangement in the natural constitution of all 
liodies produced by the most trifling causes — Analogous mischief 
done by words in the moral system — The Decalogue a summary of 
the principles of human duty — One commandment in each Table 
directed against sins of the tongue — Extreme form of the sin 
forbidden by the Ninth Commandment — Principle of the Ninth 
Commandment — The value of a good name — Maxim of St. Francis 
of Sales on this subject — " Evil speaking " as well as " slandering " 
forbidden by the commandment — Reasons why "evil speaking" 
can hardly escape being false — What the hearers gather from the 
allegation of a fact to our neighbour's discredit — the mischief of 
talebearing — if universally practised, it would subvert trust between 
man and man — General rule, seldom (if ever) to speak of our 
neighbour's character and conduct — Qualifications with which 
the general rule must be understood— yet the qualifications are 
no real suspension of the rule — Spurious charity of the present day 
— All insincere apologies for, or commendations of, our neighbour, 
to be much avoided — The topic of this chapter not unevangelical, 
since the duty advocated in it was exemplified by Our Lord . . 57 



CHAPTEE V. 

AN" IDLE WORD DEELNED EROM THE DECALOGUE. 

Meaning of "the Name of God" in Holy Scripture — Resemblance 
between the Tables of the Decalogue and the two sections of the 
Lord's Prayer — Resemblance between the Third Commandment 
and the first petition — How the serious estimate which God makes 
of Words is implied in the sanction of this commandment — Forms 
of sin forbidden — 1. All asseverations which imply an appeal to 
God — Original purport of the commandment — Conversational 
oaths among the Jews in Our Lord's time — Account of the 
dissatisfaction felt with simple affirmations and denials — The 






Contents. 11 

PAGE 

restraint which men would put upon themselves in a great presence 
— 2. The use of Scripture to give point to a jest — mischievous 
effect of this practice — Our Lord's reverence for Holy Scripture — 
general want of reverence for it at present — 3. Controversial use of 
sacred words, without being duly impressed by them — Difficulty 
of speaking suitably about Divine things — the frame of mind 
required to do so — Anecdote of Sir Isaac Newton — 4. The duty of 
speaking about God with unction and attractively — how this habit 
may be acquired — 5. The positive side of the Precept exhibited — 
The obligations involved in the four first Commandments — how 
the Fourth corrects an error which might arise from a misunder- 
standing of the Third — An habitual consciousness of God's 
Presence the mode of fulfilling the Third Commandment spiri- 
tually — The check which would be exercised upon our language 
by the remembrance that God's Eye is always upon us . . .70 



CHAPTEE VI. 

WHAT IS AN IDLE WOBD ? 

Interest and dignity of exploring the meaning of Scriptura* 
terms — Reference to the context — words, which the Pharisees had 
just spoken, were such as violated their internal convictions — But 
it is not this kind of words, which Our Lord terms idle — formula 
" but I say unto you " indicates a transition to a more extended 
application — Other instances of this formula — The word idle 
means "not fulfilling its end" — "Words of the Pharisees worse 
than idle — The strictness of the Christian Law on the subject of 
words, in conformity with the general tenour of Evangelical 
precept — Non-improvement of talents accounted wickedness under 
the Gospel — Responsibility entailed upon us by the ascertainment 
of Our Lord's meaning — a fortiori argument on the awfulness of 
words worse than idle 84 



CHAPTEE VII. 

WOEDS OF BUSINESS AND INNOCENT KECREATION 
NOT IDLE. 

Frame of mind supposed in the reader — the excellence of any 
thing consists in fulfilling its proper end — First and lowest end of 



12 Contents. 



PAGE 

■words, to carry on the business of life — System of society at a stand- 
still without words — Trifling services which may be done bywords 
— Second end, to refresh and entertain the mind — Power of speech 
for the entertainment of the mind, analogous to the power of 
moving the limbs for the recreation of the body — Refreshment of 
unrestrained intercourse, alluded to in a proverb of Solomon's — 
The excellence of such kind of conversation is wit — Connexion of 
wit and wisdom — Combination of religion and merriment in the 
same person — What may be the meaning of ' : jesting " as forbidden 
in the Epistle to the Ephesians? — All precepts of Scripture meant 
to be strictly carried out — the word in question probably indicates 
the sinful raillery of the man of fashion — Pleasantry, 1, must be 
pure ; 2, must not wound ; 3, must refrain from things sacred . 95 

NOTE. 

On the Perception of Analogies as constituting Wisdom . . 106 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SPEECH THE INSTRUMENT OE PEOPHECY AND 
SACEIEICE. 

Proposed new punctuation of a passage in the Epistle to the Co- 
lossians — Teaching and admonishing, the highest use of Speech as 
regards man — Psalms and Hymns, its highest use as it looks towards 
God — Possibility of edification on topics not directly religious — 
Sense in which all truth may be said to be a revelation of God — 
All lights, both of reason and experience, are from the Father of 
Lights — The Laity not precluded from the work of Religious 
Edification — Communications with God the highest end of Speech 
— Speech, a resource in man's nature for the carrying on of such 
communication — Dignity of the Hymn as combining intelligence 
with feeling — A poem is a song — Man, in virtue of his endowment 
with Speech, the High Priest of God — This doctrine no interference 
with ministerial functions — Ministers representatives of the people, 
and, in their character of representatives, have functions which may 
not be invaded — The ministry of the Christian will outlast that of 
the Minister . . 108 

NOTE. 

On the Analogy between the Threefold aspect of Speech, and 
the Threefold office of Christ 118 



Contents. 13 



CHAPTER IX. 



HINTS FOB THE GUIDANCE OE COJSTEKSATION. 

PAGE 

Recapitulation — Principles laid down in Holy Scripture for the 
Guidance of Conversation — Primary reference of the words " swift 
to hear, slow to speak" — Sin of lightly arrogating to oneself the 
position of a religious instructor — Subordinate reference of the 
words of St. James to the whole range of Conversation — Precepts 
of Scripture not to be tied down to their contextual application — 
We must engage in conversation with the desire of gaining instruc- 
tion — as no man has a monopoly of spiritual gifts, so no man has a 
monopoly of information — every one has some portion, however 
small, of knowledge — The vanity of our thinking that this know- 
ledge is not worth drawing out — Sublime studies not always the 
most essential to the well-being of man — Seeking to elicit informa- 
tion is one secret of avoiding the irksomeness of conversation — 
Slowness to speak involved in swiftness to hear, but nevertheless 
requires distinct pressing — Scripture profound in its analysis of the 
motives, from which evil springs — Principles upon which the in- 
tercourse of the world is regulated — Selfishness too often mani- 
fested by those who are endowed with the gift of Conversation — 
Brilliant conversation only unlawful, when it flows from the 
motive of self-glorification — How this motive, operating in a higher 
sphere, makes a man an Heresiarch — Assumption of the Heresiarch 
that he has a monopoly of God's Truth — The fallacy of this 
assumption — Weighty words to be aimed at .... 120 



CHAPTER X. 

ON" EELIGIOTJS CONVEESATION. 

Religious Conversation may turn upon 1, religious experience ; 
or 2, religious truth, external to the mind — The distinction illus- 
trated — Analogy between the mind of man in its operation upon 
ideas, and the senses in their operation upon matter — Senses so 
constructed as to throw us into the outward world — Illustrations 
from sight, hearing, and smell — Any reflex action of a sense upon 
itself would indicate disease in the organ — Similarly, the affections 
operate upon objects external to themselves— the same is the case 



14 Contents. 

PAGE 

with the faculties of the mind — Reflex action of the affections, or 
mental powers, upon themselves, indicates disease in them — But is 
not self-examination a reflection of the mind upon its own pro- 
cesses ? — true, and it is a necessary duty — hut made necessary by 
our imperfection — Self-examination had no existence in Paradise 
— Talking of our religious feelings only so far forth desirable, as it 
contributes to the end of self-examination — Mischief which may 
be suffered by too free disclosure of our religious feelings— The 
natural pride of the heart takes its occasion from humiliating con- 
fessions — Diffusion of religious feeling leads to its evaporation — 
such diffusion counteracts natural instincts — shame of moral, as of 
physical, nakedness — The whole Word of God, with all its truths, 
presents an ample field for investigation — this investigation greatly 
promoted by Conversation — Disciples discussing their difficulties 
on the way to Emmaus — All Scripture testifies of Christ — we read 
amiss, unless we find Him there — Necessity of being impressed 
with the responsibility of the faculty of speech — Was this respon- 
sibility the reason why Our Lord sighed, when He restored the 
faculty? Quotation from Cowper's " Conversation " . . . 132 



APPENDIX. 

A Sermon on the Government of the Tongue, preached in Rugby 
School Chapel 151 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CONNEXION OE SPEECH WITH REASON. 

"W)t time of ti)e singing of fcirtrs is come, anti tfje ooice 
of tfje turtle is fyeartt in our Iantt."— Song ii. 12. 

The Divine Founder of our Religion warns us in the 
most solemn manner against the sin of empty and 
frivolous conversation. His words on this subject are 
such as to strike an awe into every conscience, in the 
ear of which they are sounded. " I say unto you that 
every idle word which men shall speak, they shall give 
account thereof in the day of judgment." 

Nor is the Law behind the Gospel in its protest 
against this particular form of evil. We find such a 
protest inwoven into the most essential part of the 
Law — into that part, which is universal in application 
and binding upon all alike — into the very tables of the 
Decalogue. " The Lord will not hold him guiltless," 
we there read, " who taketh His Name in vain " — the 
implication here being that God (and His estimate 
must be righteous, — cannot be harsh) will regard sins 
of the tongue in a light totally different from that in 
which the world regards them. Let it be borne in 
mind that the Ten Commandments are the code of 
essential morality for all times, for every generation, — 



16 The Connexion of Speech ivith Reason. 

that there is nothing in them (considered as a rule of 
life) which has ever been abrogated, or is susceptible 
of abrogation, — that they are not a series of arbitrary 
rules made (as it were) by the discretion of the Al- 
mighty, but are based upon the eternal relations sub- 
sisting between God and man, between man and his 
brother ; and it will then be seen that every precept 
which they inculcate (whether directly or by impli- 
cation) must be part of the essence of true religion — 
must have a profound import, and one which we can 
only trifle with at the peril of our souls. 

Now the grounds of this serious view of light talking 
require to be explained. Grounds of course there are — 
God's every word must be based upon counsel, — but 
they do not at once approve themselves to the mind. 
So entirely has the comparative indifference of words 
taken possession of the minds even of religious persons, 
that they find it difficult to fight against the unscrip- 
tural persuasion. Of what sin does even the well- 
principled and well-conducted man think more lightly, 
than of a profane or hot expression, vented in a moment 
of excitement ? And if he were assured, as he might 
be assured on the best of grounds, that such a sin has 
really a very serious aspect, probably his understanding 
would not at once acquiesce in such a verdict. He 
might suppress his understanding (as he ought to do) 
in deference to the testimony of God's Word, but it 
would require some consideration before he could bring 
round his mind to assent to the reasonableness of that 
testimony. 

It is the author's purpose to throw together some 
thoughts in the following pages, bearing on the import- 
ant subject of Conversation. He feels more and more 
that one of the greatest hindrances to personal piety — 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 17 

that which eats out the heart and soul of true religion — 
is an unrestrained and unchastened exercise of the 
tongue, — that if persons could but be persuaded to 
banish from their lips empty talk (talk relevant to 
nothing in particular, gossip about their neighbours' 
concerns and arrangements, little profanenesses of ex- 
pression, and the like) and to leave only such speech 
as was instructive or amusing (for words of innocent 
humour and wit are surely not idle words) — a vast 
amount of moral and spiritual mischief would be swept 
away as so much rubbish out of the world, and men 
would be introduced by the effort into the atmosphere 
of holiness, as finding themselves unable to effect such 
a clearance without constant mindfulness of the Pre- 
sence of God. May God abundantly bless what shall 
be offered upon the subject, to our conviction of sin and 
conversion from it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

I propose to begin at the very foundation of the 
subject. This method of proceeding (Bellum Trojanum 
ordiri ab ovo) may be unsuitable indeed for a poem, 
but it is essential to the clearness and stability of an 
argument on graver subjects. Thus our first topic 
will be — 

The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

If this connexion can be thoroughly established, if it 
can be shown that Speech is the great organ of Rea- 
son, — the sign, proof, and evidence that a creature is 
rational — then the seriousness of Speech will at once 
become apparent. If it be impossible to make an ordi- 
nary remark, without calling into exercise that special 
gift which distinguishes man from the inferior animals, 
and allies him with God and holy angels, then there 
may be some real and deep-seated impropriety in mak- 
ing a trifling or light remark, — in doing so we may be 

i. w. e 



18 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

playing with an instrument of mighty power, and de- 
grading it to low and cheap uses. 

Speech then, as a fact, is connected with Eeason. 
Eeasonable creatures are those who can speak, — and 
conversely those who can speak are reasonable \ With 
this fact alone we shall occupy ourselves in the present 
Chapter. Sow Speech and Eeason are connected, will 
be the subject of future consideration. 

We are surrounded by, even as we are composed of, 
three elements — Body, Soul, and Spirit. 

I. First, we cast our eyes abroad upon inanimate 
nature — upon the frame of the earth, the trees, the 
rocks, the water. 

There is no Speech here, — no power of expressing 
either intelligence or feeling. For Speech is not merely 
the emitting of sounds. It is of course obvious that 
inanimate nature may emit sounds. The waves surge, 
the stream ripples, the avalanche crashes, the thunder 
mutters, the bare arms of the trees in winter sway 
and creak in the wind ; but these sounds, however a 
lively fancy may picture in them the voice of nature 
addressing herself to man, have evidently no affinity 
with Speech. 

Let a man go abroad amid the mountain fastnesses 
or in the fields, and pour forth his soul to nature. 
Let him previously be wrought up to the highest point 
of passion and interest — let him have burning thoughts 
within him, and long to unbosom them. Let him be 
full of passionate grief or ardent enthusiasm, and let 
him be bent upon relief by venting these emotions. 
Let him address the great solitude, as if it had ears to 
hear him, and intelligence to respond. Let him weep, 
let him plead, let him expostulate, let him fling himself 
1 See the Note at the end of the Chapter. 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 19 

upon the bosom of the soil, let him call heaven and 
earth to witness, let him attest the mountains to his 
controversy and the strong foundations of the earth, let 
him seek to extort a hearing by every form of appeal 
which can awaken passion, and rouse dormant sym- 
pathy ; well, what is the response ? Nature, to those 
who seek her sympathy, is like Baal to his worshippers. 
" There is neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that 
regardeth." The great mountains stand in grim silence 
around, unmoved spectators of his passion ; or, if they 
give back sound, it is only " jocosa montis imago," — 
his own words returned as if in mockery upon himself. 
The mimicry of his own pleading rings in his ear, and 
he turns away with a bitter sense of the barrenness of 
his efforts. Nature has no intelligence — she cannot 
counsel him with discourse. She has no soul — she 
cannot comfort him with sympathy. 

Imagine now the ease of a similar appeal made to an 
animate and rational being. Take as an example the 
tender and urgent expostulations of God with His 
sinful creature man. God pours out His whole heart 
of love in pleading, — in yearning over His prodigal 
erring child. He draws His stirring appeals from every 
topic, which experience proves to carry weight with it. 
At one time He rolls over the sinner's head the thunders 
of retribution — He whispers into the ear of the con- 
science the nearness of death and judgment. At 
another, He arrays before him the blessings and com- 
forts of a lot which has fallen in fair ground, and asks 
by an inward voice which will not be suppressed, 
whether these do not legitimately call for gratitude. 
At another, He pleads in yet more urgent strains the 
Sacrifice which He has provided to win back the 
allegiance of man, — the Sacrifice which testifies to a 
B 2 



20 The Connexion of Speech with 'Reason. 

love stronger than death, which the many waters of 
human indifference cannot quench, neither can the 
flood of ingratitude drown it. The God-man by His 
Word, by His Ministers, by His Spirit, pleads the 
wounds which scarred His Sacred Body, and the pangs 
which rent His Holy Soul asunder, the strong crying 
which went up to God from the depths of His un- 
fathomable anguish, and the bitter tears which, in the 
days of His flesh, the malice of foes and the faithless- 
ness of friends alike conspired to draw from Him — well 
—and is there no response? God be praised, these 
pleadings have not gone forth into the world of spirit — 
into the world of reason — without awakening a reply. 
The reply is Speech, articulate and intelligent. The 
reply is Prayer — no barren empty retort — but a taking 
of words on the part of many, and a turning to the 
Lord. When God's Voice issues His invitation of 
Grace to all the world, and says, Seek ye My face, an 
answer struggles up to Him from the depth of many a 
conscience, " Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Oh, hide not 
Thou Thy face from me, nor cast Thy servant away in 
displeasure." He addressed the spirit, or reason, of 
man, and the spirit communes with him by its organ 
of Speech. 

II. But, in the second place, we are surrounded by 
animated nature — a stage in the creation infinitely 
higher than that which we have just considered. 

But again there is no Speech here, albeit there is 
a dim dark semblance of Speech — something which 
struggles up towards being speech, and seems to make 
an impotent effort to express itself in articulate lan- 
guage. For Speech (properly so called) is not the 
expression of feeling, but the expression of intelligence 
or Eeason. The brute creation, as possessing Soul or 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 21 

affection, is capable of expressing feeling. Animals 
will cry when frightened or struck ; the dog has been 
even known to moan round the grave when bereaved 
of his master. But the most striking exemplification 
of the susceptibility of animals to feeling, and of 
their power of expressing it, is to be found in the notes 
of birds. " The fowls of the heaven," says the Psalmist, 
" sing among the branches." The same phenomenon 
is noticed in the passage which stands at the head of 
this chapter — " The time of the singing of birds is 
come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." 
The music which birds pour forth expresses joy, con- 
tentment, and satisfaction, feelings of which they are 
no doubt susceptible according to the limits of their 
nature, and the conditions which it imposes. Their 
music, like instrumental music, is the effusion and 
embodiment of sentiment. What are the harp and the 
organ, and those other mechanisms which trace up 
their origin to Jubal ? What are they but instruments 
for expressing feeling, apart from intelligence ? And 
their sounds, as being the offspring of affection, touch 
and move the springs of affection. There are, indeed, 
some persons, in whom this source of pleasing emotions 
seems to be sealed up. But others there are, in whom 
the soul predominates, and is the key-note to their 
nature, — who can be moved even to tears by strains of 
music, and whose soul, in a varied melody, now rising 
into exultation, now sinking into plaintiveness, lies 
rocking upon the undulations of the music, as fishing- 
boats heave and fall with a swell in the bay. Now 
birds are Nature's musicians, and the song of birds is 
Nature's music. And thus, even among unreasoning 
creatures, there is an expression of sentiment or feeling 
by means of sound. 



22 The Connexion of Speech ivith Reason. 

III. But how infinitely does this expression of feel- 
ing fall below Speech, which is the expression of intelli- 
gence. Only think what Speech is : how wonderful 
a gift for any creature to be endowed withal ! That by 
a few articulate sounds, uttered almost with the rapidity 
of lightning, I should be able to summon up a whole 
train of ideas in the mind of another, and those, not 
rough-hewn ideas — not vague and undefined impres- 
sions — but notions nicely chiselled, exact, and precise 
(notions following in an orderly and consecutive ar- 
rangement one upon another) — so that, for example, a 
person whom I send to search for a thing in my cham- 
ber, comprehends by my uttering twenty words the 
precise spot in which he is to lay his hand upon it — 
why this, if we will but ponder it, is a miracle — not 
the less marvellous for being of daily occurrence. Com- 
pare with this the utmost verge to which any animal 
can go in the communication of ideas. Some of the 
domestic animals can convey the feelings of gratitude 
and affection, gladness in recognizing their owners, fear 
of punishment and pain under the smart of it ; but 
what are these mere impressions of the soul, even when 
conveyed by sound, compared to the Discourse of 
Eeason, in one sentence of which ideas are ordered, 
marshalled, and communicated with a facility which is 
only equalled by their clearness. Between the sound 
expressive of feeling and the sound expressive of intel- 
ligence there is a great gulf fixed ; far greater than 
that which separates man from man, the kindly but 
rough peasant from the acutest philosopher. For the 
peasant may be developed by mental training into the 
philosopher, but no training or discipline could develope 
mere feeling into reason. 

We see, then, as a fact in the world around us, that 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 23 

Reason and Speech are associated together. Where 
Reason is not found, there Speech is not found, and 
where Reason is, there Speech is, as the organ or 
expression of Reason. 

Two remarks of a practical nature arise from what 
has been said. In the course of our discussion we have 
incidentally mentioned the response which the human 
heart makes to God's invitations of Grace — Speech in 
the form of prayer and praise — the highest form this 
which Speech can assume. How forcible is the argu- 
ment against vain and light words, which this single 
thought supplies. The noblest exercise of Speech, its 
most exalted function, its great final cause, is that it 
should be poured forth before the Lord in confession, 
supplication, thanksgiving, and praise. Now, viewing 
the matter in this light, is not this of itself sufficient 
ground to make us think seriously of Speech ? Does 
not the evil of an idle word become apparent, seeing 
that it is a degradation to low uses of a noble instru- 
ment ? Is there not an obvious impropriety — an im- 
propriety residing in the nature of things — in employing 
a gift, which is destined to such noble uses, for purposes 
of defamation, railing, profaneness, or with the mere 
frivolous object of whiling away time, apart from the 
motive of improvement ? I may add, in the language 
of St. Paul, accommodated to my purpose : " Say I 
this thing of myself, or saith not the Scripture the 
same also ?" For is it not written, " With the tongue 
bless we God, even the Father ; and therewith curse we 
men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out 
of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing?" 
And then what does St. James add ? " My brethren, 
these things ought not so to be" There is a deep impro- 
priety, a folly and a vice, in these contradictory employ- 
ments of one and the same organ. How! shall you 



24 The Connexion of Speech with "Reason. 

come into the House of God, and there take up into 
your lips the inspired strains which flowed from the 
harp of David: or shall you go into your chamber, 
and recite before God the prayer which was taught you 
by the Infinite Wisdom ; and then shall you go forth, 
and employ the same tongue in company, to point a 
profane joke, or to launch an unclean innuendo, or to 
rail against your brother on the moment that you are 
thwarted ? Will you thus take an instrument of the 
temple service and degrade it to the mean end of grati- 
fying temper, or lust, or the desire of saying something 
smart ? Lord, deliver us from the guilt of such sin in 
time past, and from its power in time to come ! 

Finally : — One conclusion, to which the truths which 
we have developed conduct us, is the great dignity, 
glory, and beauty of human singing. We have seen 
that the song (as it is called) of the bird is expressive 
only of feeling. There is soul in it, but there is no 
reason. Even without reason, the outpouring of music, 
whether from the bird's throat or from the instrument, 
is very beautiful. But let reason be added to music. 
Let the expression of feeling be added to the expres- 
sion of intelligence, as is the case in human singing. 
Let the devout sympathies of the heart be made to 
keep pace with articulate discourse respecting G-od's 
mercies (as it is written, " I will sing with the spirit, 
and I will sing with the understanding also "), and 
what is the result ? The result is just this ; the 
highest active engagement, in which man can by 
possibility be employed. Intelligence speaking the 
praises of God, while the heart echoes them, what 
a sublime exercise ! How worthy of occupying the 
faculties of man throughout eternity ! Therefore 
it is, that in every Scriptural representation of the 
state of glory, we find this hymning of the praises 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 25 

of God forming the great staple of the employment 
of the glorified. Are they spoken of as the four 
living creatures, or as the four-and-twenty elders ? 
They are represented as falling down before the Lamb, 
having every one of them harps, and singing a new 
song, saying, " Thou art worthy to take the book, and 
to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain and 
hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." Are 
they the redeemed from among men, who follow the 
Lamb whithersoever He goeth ? They are represented 
as " harpers harping with their harps, and singing as it 
were a new song before the throne, which no man could 
learn but " themselves. Are they those who have 
gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, 
and over his mark, and over the number of his name ? 
They are shown to us as standing on the sea of glass, 
mingled with fire (that is, on the crystal firmament, 
in which the stars wander and the lightnings play) and 
singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the 
song of the Zamb, saying, " Great and marvellous are 
Thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and true are 
Thy ways, Thou King of Saints." 

Lord, when we turn our minds to those glorified 
saints of Thine, we recognize deeply our unmeetness to 
join in that mighty chorus of Hallelujah. " Woe is 
me for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the 
midst of a people of unclean lips : for mine eyes have 
seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." Lord, touch and 
hallow our lips by the live coal from Thine altar, even 
by His atonement and mediation, Who was a coal of 
earthly nature, kindled with the fire of Divinity. Touch 
our hearts with love and zeal, and out of the abundance 
of the heart let our mouths speak Thy high praise. 



26 Note. 

And by the Blood of the Lamb, and through the in- 
strumentality of sanctified trouble, make us meet to 
join that heavenly chorus, who " rest not day and night, 
saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord G-od Almighty, which 
was, and is, and is to come. Thou art worthy, Lord, 
to receive glory and honour and power ; for Thou hast 
created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and 
were created." 



NOTE ON CHAPTER I., p. 18. 

" Reasonable creatures are those who can speak — and, 
conversely, those who can speak are reasonable" 

Iisr order to justify these two propositions, it is necessary to define 
Speech exactly. 

Speech, then, is the conveyance of ideas from mind to mind in 
logical method. 

By holding fast to this definition, we shall be enabled to see 
our way through cases, which might at first appear to constitute 
exceptions to the above positions. Thus it might be alleged 
against the first of them (" All reasonable creatures speak "), that 
the dumb are reasonable creatures. But the dumb have the 
faculty of speech, though some imperfection in their organs pre- 
vents their exercising it vocally. The essence of speech is not in 
the sound ; otherwise a machine might be made to speak. The 
dumb can not only arrange his ideas in an orderly and methodi- 
cal manner, can not only throw them mentally into consecutive 
words and propositions, but can convey them, so arranged, to 
another person, by talking on the fingers. 

Against the second position (" All creatures who can speak are 
reasonable ") it might be alleged that birds of the parrot tribe, 
though not endowed with Reason, can speak. But to this also it 
may be replied, that the mere making of articulate sounds, inde- 
pendently of the ideas annexed to them, is not Speech. It is not 
pretended that imitative birds can mentally frame a proposition ; 
and the doing this is part of the essence of Speech. 



Note. 27 

But there are cases among the inferior animals which mount 
up much more nearly to the notion of speech, than that of the 
parrot. I extract one of these from Sir Benjamin Brodie's 
Psychological Inquiries (p. 192, Second Edition). 

"The observations of M. Dujardin place it beyond a doubt 
that bees have some means of communicating with each other, 
answering the purpose of speech. When a saucer containing 
syrup was placed in a recess in a wall, and a bee conveyed to it 
on the end of a stick which had been smeared with syrup, he re- 
mained there for five or six minutes, and then flew back to his 
hive. In about a quarter of an hour, thirty other bees issued 
from the same hive, and came to regale themselves on the con- 
tents of the saucer. The bees from the same hive continued their 
visits as long as the sugar remained in the state of syrup, and fit 
for their purpose, but none came from another hive in the neigh- 
bourhood. When the sugar was dry, the saucer was deserted, 
except that every now and then a straggler came, as if to inspect 
it, and if he found that by the addition of water it was again in 
a state of syrup, his visit was presently followed by that of 
numerous othei's." 

On reading this trait of Natural History (and I believe many 
similar instances might be adduced), it might occur to one to 
ask : " Is not this Speech in all its essentials ? The bee who first 
visited the saucer communicated to those in his own hive the 
intelligence that syrup was there — an intelligence of which the 
bees in the adjacent hives did not avail themselves, hecause they 
had no informant." ~No doubt this appears to have been the 
case. But there is no evidence whatever that the intelligence 
was communicated by a method of arrangement involving Subject, 
Predicate, and Copula, or that bees could so communicate. And 
how many processes of Reason are involved in the logical method 
of communication, will be seen in the succeeding Chapter. It is 
not every communication of ideas from mind to mind, which is 
Speech, but the communication of them in logical propositions, 
which ordinary persons effect by the mouth, and the dumb by the 
hand. Exclamations or gestures might convey to me that a man 
was in pain, or in ecstasy of delight, or that he wanted me to 
reach him something, but no one will dignify these methods of 
communication by the name of Speech. 

With all submission of my judgment to the great scientific 



28 Note. 

authority, whose work I have just quoted, and whose hook is 
characterized not only by its patient investigation of facts, and 
refusal ever to outrun their verdict (the great scientific virtue), 
but also by what is far more precious — profound deference to 
Revealed Religion, I am unable to go along with all his con- 
clusions, those especially which relate to the possession of the 
higher reasoning powers by animals. Thus, for example, he says, 
in the person of Ekqates — 

" Setting aside the lowest form of animal life, I apprehend that 
no one who considers the subject can doubt that the mental prin- 
ciple in animals is of the same essence as that of human beings ; 
so that even in the humbler classes we may trace the rudiments 
of those faculties, to which in their state of more complete deve- 
lopment we are indebted for the grandest results of human 
genius. We cannot suppose the existence of mere sensation 
without supposing that there is something more. In the stupid 
carp, which comes to a certain spot, at a certain hour, or on a 
certain signal, to be fed, we recognize at any rate the existence of 
memory and the association of ideas. But we recognize much 
more than this in the dog who assists the shepherd in collecting 
his sheep in the wilds of the Welsh mountains. Locke, and 
Dugald Stewart following him, do not allow that brute animals 
have the power of abstraction. Now taking it for granted that 
abstraction can mean nothing more than the power of comparing 
our conceptions, with reference to certain points to the exclusion 
of others : as, for example, when we consider colour without 
reference to figure, or figure without reference to colour ; then I 
do not see how we can deny the existence of this faculty in other 
animals any more than in man himself. In this sense of the 
word, abstraction is a necessary part of the process of reasoning, 
which Locke defines as being the perception of the agreement or 
disagreement of our ideas. But who can doubt that a dog 
reasons, while he is looking for his master, whom he has lost ; or 
(as in the instance of which we were speaking just now) when he 
is seeking his way home over an unknown country ?" 

Ceites. 

" But if my recollection be accurate, Dugald Stewart does not 
mean to deny that brute animals are capable of the simpler forms 
of reasoning. He merely states that being unable to carry on 



Note. 29 

processes of thought by the help of artificial signs (that is, of 
language), they have no power of arriving at general or scientific 
conclusions." 

Ekg-ates. 

" Without doubting for an instant the vast superiority of the 
human mind, still it appears to me to be difficult to say hoivfar 
the capacities of brute animals are limited in these respects. It 
is not to be denied that the aid of language is necessary to the 
carrying on any long or complex process of reasoning. But we 
see, nevertheless, that those who are born deaf and dumb reason 
to a great extent ; and, on the other hand, it may well be ques- 
tioned whether some animals are so wholly unprovided with 
language as Dugald Stewart supposes." 

The incapability of animals to arrive at general or scientific 
conclusions, maintained by Dugald Stewart, and questioned in 
the above passage, seems to me to be perfectly tenable, notwith- 
standing the instances adduced against it. Let it be granted 
(since the result is the same) that a dog finds his master in the 
same way (so far as mental process is concerned) as a man 
or a boy would. He knows his master by sight. (A repeated 
exercise of the senses, united with memory, effects this.) He 
knows his habits. Having accompanied him in his walks, he 
is aware to what places he usually resorts at certain hours. 
He goes to the same places, or in the same direction. In doing 
this he has an additional assistance from the senses, (which 
the man does not enjoy,) in the keenness of his scent. Pro- 
bably this keenness of the scent furnishes a large amount of 
help in that much more wonderful phenomenon, adverted to in 
the beginning of the Conversation, and which I myself have 
known as taking place — a dog taken in a carriage and by a 
circuitous route, to a distant place, finding his way back to his 
former home across a tract of country with which he could 
have had no previous acquaintance. 

Probably animals, being much more occupied in the senses, — 
living in them much more than men do, are generally far more 
observant of sensible tokens. A man's mind has a wider sphere 
through which to diffuse itself. As he walks or is carried 
through the streets, he muses on future contingencies, or on past 
incidents— his mind is not in the senses — audit, non auscul- 
tat. Hence in many exercises of the mind upon the notices 



30 Note. 

of sense, we should expect to find him even inferior to the 
animals. 

But in the instances referred to, I cannot see any evidence 
which shows more in the mind of the animal than memory, and 
close observation. Where is the abstraction ? the generaliza- 
tion ? the perception of law ? any approach to the apprehension 
of a general and scientific truth ? If we must- represent by an 
equivalent proposition the idea in the animal's mind, will it 
ever mount above a particular proposition—" This is the man 
whom I saw, or this the road along which I travelled, the 
other day/' &c. &c. ? Though indeed to represent it by a pro- 
position at all, gives probably an erroneous notion, as all pro- 
positions involve arrangement and classification of ideas. (See 
next Chapter.) 

Does not the author somewhat ignore the old and most true 
distinction between the intellectual efforts (if we are to call them 
so) of animals, and those of men — a distinction which places 
between the two a great and apparently impassable gulf? 
"Man's state is susceptible of continual improvement, and Ms 
civilization of continual progress by fresh discoveries. Eeason 
(as it is possessed by him) is susceptible of a development to 
which we can set no limits. Where is there any thing com- 
parable to this, or at all generically the same, in the history of 
animals ? It cannot, I suppose, be denied that animals, under 
the pressure of particular emergencies, occasionally devise a 
particular method of extricating themselves. They may discover 
a door of resource in a particular case. But can they lay down 
the platform of a general principle, or rear upon it step by 
step the superstructure of an ameliorated and higher condition 
of existence? Sir B. Brodie talks of "the republic of the 
rookery." Is that republic one whit better governed now 
than it was when rooks were first created ? Has legislation 
advanced among them? He tells us (with great truth and 
force) that "insects are excellent weavers, house-builders, 
architects — that they make diving-bells, bore galleries, raise 
vaults, and construct bridges," &c. The various branches of 
skill and industry are no doubt innate in some of them, and 
correspond to their particular habits and modes of life. But have 
insects ever opened up a new resource which they were not 
at first endowed with ? If not, why not ? Is it only because 
they have not the mental stimulus necessary to rise above the 



Note. 31 

occasion ? because they are so constituted, as to acquiesce in a 
supply of the needs of their present state of existence ? because 
when the immediate want is satisfied, there is no further restless- 
ness in the mind — no curiosity ? This may partly account for it, 
but we think also that there is much reason to suppose in them, 
with Dugald Stewart, an impossibility of "arriving at general 
or scientific conclusions." 

I have not adverted in the text (lest I should too much tres- 
pass upon the religious and practical character of the work) to a 
topic, which yet may find place in a note, as going far to establish 
the very close connexion between Reason and Speech. It is a 
very old debate (into the rights of which it is foreign to our pre- 
sent purpose to enter) whether or not it is possible to reason 
mentally, without having the words in the mind, which repre- 
sent the subjects of our reasoning. Whatever be the truth on 
this moot point, the fact of its being a moot point is sufficient to 
establish generally a close connexion between Reason and Speech. 

If a question were raised and discussed, whether or not it is 
possible, under present arrangements, to pay tithes in kind — 
whether or not they may be paid in any other form than that of 
money — this would be a sufficient evidence of a connexion 
between tithe and money, and that the latter is commonly 
the form in which the former appears. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CONNEXION OE SPEECH WITH BEAS02T. 

" Qxitt out of tfjc grounfrtfje 3Eortr €&otr formtfj tbtrp foast of 
ii)C fidtf, antr tbcrp fotol of tf)t air ; antr Brought tfjem unto 
^tram to set tofjat f)e tooultf tall tfjtm : antr tofjatsotbar 
^Itfam talltti tbtrp Iibing crtaturt, t^at teas ti)t name 
tfjmof."— Gen. ii. 19. 

" 3|* surname^ tfjern ISoantrges, to^ic^ is, ifyt sons of 
trjuntttr." — Make iii. 17. 

lis" the first Chapter we called attention to the fact, 
that Speech and Eeason are associated together. 

In pursuing the topic further, we shall catch a 
glimpse of the grounds and manner of that connexion. 

"While speaking on subjects of rather an abstract 
and philosophical character, I desire both for my 
readers and myself, that we should keep in mind that 
the end of our discussion is to edify— to point out 
how intrinsically serious and awful a gift the faculty 
of Speech is, and so to illustrate, and show the grounds 
of, Our Lord's censure of idle words. 

The naming by Adam of the beasts and fowls is the 
first exercise of human Speech upon record. 

I say, it is the first exercise of human Speech. The 
faculty of Speech must have existed before. In the 
circumstance of his naming the several creatures, it 
is sufficiently implied that our first parent must have 



The Connexion of Speech ivith Meason. 33 

been previously endowed with the gift, which alone 
could have enabled him to name them. Not only- 
must the bodily organs which are necessary to arti- 
culation — the tongue, the lips, the palate, the throat, 
the teeth, — have existed previously ; but those pro- 
cesses of the mind, which are essential to the formation 
of language, must have been previously developed and 
(to a great extent) matured. 

Now a question might be raised of this kind. Speech 
being so obvious a characteristic of man, why are we 
never told that man was endowed with Speech ? "Why 
is no notice given us, that God bestowed upon His 
noblest creature a gift so wonderful? Why is our 
attention never called to the time at which the grant 
was made ? Why, in short, is the endowment assumed 
as a matter of course ? The answer is obvious. The 
gift of language is involved in the gift of a rational 
soul. And a rational soul is part of the constitution 
of Man : so that no creature is a man without it. It 
having been stated that Man was made in God's 
Image after God's Likeness, and that the breath of 
lives (not life, but lives, i. e. animal, intellectual, and 
spiritual life) was breathed into his nostrils, it would 
have been superfluous to add that he was endowed 
with Speech, for that is involved in this account of 
his constitution. The following illustration is offered. 
Suppose we were told that a man had manufactured 
a watch. We should not need to be subsequently 
informed that he had placed a mainspring in the heart 
of it. For a mainspring is essential to the constitution 
of a watch: a watch is not a watch (but only the 
semblance of a watch) without a mainspring, and, 
therefore, when we are informed that he manufactured 
a watch, it is implied that he gave it a mainspring. 

I. w. c 



34 The Connexion of Speech ivith Reason. 

Or suppose that those words of Inspiration, " God 
maketh the light," were read in your hearing. Would 
any man, possessed of a knowledge of the subject, 
think of asking, " Why is it never said that God made 
colours, that beautiful raiment of many hues which 
nature is dressed withal, the ruddy streaks of the even- 
ing sunset, the deep purple of the sea under some con- 
ditions of the atmosphere, the gorgeous plumage of 
birds in hot climates, and so forth?" The answer of 
course is, that in making light, God made colour ; all 
colour is in the light, as you will see by employing 
the prism. In the absence of light there is no colour, 
showing that colour resides not as a quality in objects 
themselves, but is an essential property of light. The 
difference of colour in objects is caused merely by 
some very subtle difference of superficies and texture, 
one superficies or texture absorbing the brighter rays, 
and rejecting (or reflecting) the more sombre ; while 
others, of directly contrary affinity, absorb the sombre, 
and reflect the bright. Now just as colour inheres 
in light, and is developed out of it, so Speech inheres 
in Reason ; and, therefore, when it is asserted or 
implied that a creature is rational, it were only super- 
fluous to add that he has the faculty or endowment 
of Speech. His endowment with Reason implies as 
much. 

But now let us look more minutely into the narrative 
of Adam's naming the creatures, and consider what 
other implications respecting the gift of Speech may 
be found in it. 

It is against propriety to suppose the names to 
have been purely arbitrary and unmeaning, to have 
been simply articulate sounds attached without reason 
to the various animals. Such an hypothesis may be 



TJie Connexion of Speech with Reason. 35 

discarded, as not corresponding with the dignity of 
the subject. The constituted sovereign of the earth, 
under whose feet were solemnly placed " all sheep and 
oxen, yea and the beasts of the field ; the fowl of the 
air, and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever walketh 
through the paths of the seas," — walks abroad upon 
the domain, which has been newly created and fur- 
nished for his special service. The various creatures 
are made to pass before him in long array, — each 
pauses for a moment to receive his searching glance 
of intuition, — and then the air reverberates in distinct 
accents its name. Shall we suppose that in such a 
name there was no suitability, — nothing implying 
discernment of the properties of the animal, — nothing 
that shed light upon its habits, manners, and charac- 
teristics ? Such a notion seems to me untenable upon 
the surface ; it goes to represent the whole transaction 
as a very futile and shallow one. 

Rejecting it, therefore, and adopting the view of 
there being a propriety and significance in the names 
which Adam conferred, let us consider how much of 
previous mental process on his part is thus implied. 

The names may have been significant either of the 
physical properties of the animals, or of their habits 
and character. (One instance of a name of the former 
class in the Latin language would be corvus, signifying 
the raven — a word which many etymologists regard 
as identical with the adjective curvus, crooked, sup- 
posing the bird in question to have been thus denomi- 
nated from the crookedness of its beak.) Let us 
suppose then that the beasts and fowl were all de- 
signated originally on a principle similar to this ; that 
the fox drew his name from his cunning, the hare 
from its quick sense of hearing, the horse from its 
c 2 



36 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

fleetness, the rhinoceros from its impenetrable flakes 
of natural armour, the eagle from the power of its 
eye. The process must have been something of this 
kind ; and what does such a process imply ? It 
implies first general notions of cunning, quick hearing, 
fleetness, impenetrability, power of eye. These notions, 
and the words expressing them, must have been formed 
previously in the mind of Adam. And this formation 
of abstract ideas was probably affected much as it 
is now, by observation and experience. The child 
becomes conversant by means of his senses with 
certain objects which agree in some one point, which 
have the same colour, or the same form, or which 
stand in similar relations to some other objects. 
Hence he gains what is called an abstract idea, — an 
idea independent of, and more perfect than, any object 
which he has ever seen. The sight of snow, and wax, 
and wool, and white paper, furnishes him with a gene- 
ral idea of the colour white. The arrowy rushing of a 
rapid river, the rapid careering of some unyoked 
animal, the flight of an arrow — these and similar 
scenes open the eyes of his mind to the general notion 
of swiftness. His notions of moral qualities are 
formed in the same way. He has indeed an innate 
moral sense; but it is developed by witnessing par- 
ticular instances of moral conduct. Instances in a 
parent or guardian of impartiality, or the reverse, give 
birth to his latent ideas of justice and injustice. So 
that, in short, before a child could name any object 
white, or any movement swift, or any action just, his 
mind must have been at work. 1st. Observing and 
noticing things around him. 2ndly. Comparing them 
together. 3rdly. Classifying them according to the 
results of the comparison. To denominate a horse 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 37 

white, lie must first have noticed several white objects 
(this would demand merely an exercise of the senses) . 
Secondly, he must have placed them side by side in 
his mind (this would demand an exercise of memory). 
Thirdly, he must, by seizing upon the point in which 
they agree, and dropping the points in which they 
differ, have reduced them under a general head or 
classified them (this would demand an exercise of the 
powers called abstraction and generalization) . 

This last power, which we may call the power of 
Classification, I take to be one of the distinguishing 
characteristics of the Eeason. You may classify or 
generalize too hastily, and so erroneously (the unedu- 
cated do so) ; but this affords no sufficient grounds 
against regarding the power of Classification as one 
of the fundamental principles of the human Eeason. 
What is the first thing which a superior mind does, 
when it grapples with any subject? It classifies: it 
throws immediate light upon the subject by a clear 
and good division of it under heads. Look at such 
a work as Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning. 
He takes up each subject of human learning, and 
divides it into its branches with an admirable skill. 
The mere division, independently of the comment upon 
it, sheds a very considerable light upon the subject 
itself — its bearings flash upon you as you read the 
dry heads of the topics to be discussed. Again, in 
matters of practical management, how is a great mind 
discerned? When the affairs of a nation have got 
entangled and are in confusion, what is the first work 
of the intellect which professes to right them? Is 
it not organization ? and what is organization but 
Classification, — the discerning a fitness between certain 
men and certain posts, and placing the men in those 



38 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

posts, — the methodical devolving of certain functions 
upon certain seasons and certain persons, — the full 
carrying out, in great matters, of the principle which 
holds in common things, that there shall be a place 
for every thing, and that every thing shall be in its 
place ? 

Classification, then, is the great work of the Reason 1 . 
And it will be observed that Language expresses the 
classifications made by the Reason. Language does 
not give us a distinct word for every object in the world, 
— it does not assign to things, as to men, proper names ; 
but it gives us generic words, embracing whole classes, 
and so susceptible of numerous applications. Take any 
substantive, adjective, or verb, in any language, — and 
you will at once see that the substantive expresses not 
one object, but many, — the adjective, the quality not of 
one object, but of many, — and the verb, not one action, 
but many. The substantive comprises numerous ob- 
jects, and the verb numerous actions, under one head. 
This is the power of Classification in the human mind, 
putting itself forth in words. Hence the intimate 
connexion of Speech with Reason. 

Of course it is not intended to convey the impression, 
that every one employing Language has previously 
gone through the mental processes of observation, 
memory, and classification, which we have described. 
Certainly not. It is only asserted that in the first 
formation of Language, as in the first adoption of it by 
each individual, these processes of mind must have been 
previously at work. Words are the great medium of 
commerce between mind and mind, as coins are the 
medium of literal commerce. And as coins, in passing 

1 See the Note at the end of the Chapter. 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 39 

through many hands, become quite worn and smooth, 
and lose all trace of their original minting, so it is with 
words: men fling them about in exchange to one 
another, as current for such or such a signification, 
without ever dreaming of the intellectual processes 
which gave them their origin. But Divine Truth, 
with its heavenly precepts against idle or light words, 
recalls our minds to this origin. It bids us see in 
words the exercise of the human Reason. It rubs off 
the crust and film of usage, which has grown over them, 
and obscured their origin, and made us think as lightly 
of them as of pebbles on the sea-shore, and discloses to 
us their lustre, worth, and weight, and above all the 
image and superscription of Reason which they bear — 
Reason, which was itself made in the Image of God. 

We turn, however, gladly from the more speculative 
part of the subject (which yet is necessary in order to 
the thorough sifting of it) to the second passage which 
stands at the head of the Chapter — that passage which 
brings before us, not the first man who introduced sin 
and death into the world, but the Second Adam, through 
whom alone flow pardon, peace, and blessing to the 
guilty. Adam is expressly stated by St. Paul to have 
been a " figure of Him that was to come." And, 
accordingly, as we find Adam manifesting his sove- 
reignty over nature, by bestowing names on the inferior 
animals, so do we find the Lord Jesus Christ manifest- 
ing His sovereignty in His Spiritual Kingdom of 
Grace, by bestowing names upon His Disciples. He 
gives to Simon the name of Peter, to James and John 
the surname Boanerges, or the sons of thunder. 

What the precise signification of the latter name, as 
applied to St. James and St. John, may be, has been 
much disputed. The most probable account is, that it 



40 The Connexion of Speech with 'Reason. 

has reference to the impetuous spirit of the two 
Apostles, — the spirit which promoted the suggestion 
that fire from heaven should be called down upon 
inhospitable Samaritans. Against this it might be 
alleged, that St. John at least was eminently the 
Apostle of Iiove, that gentleness and charity seem to 
have been his distinguishing graces — that the traditional 
representation of him by painters gives a cast of femi- 
nine rather than of masculine beauty to the countenance, 
— and that impetuosity therefore could not have been 
his leading characteristic. But may it not be questioned 
whether love, and ardent impetuosity in behalf of the 
person loved, are not two sides of one and the same 
character ? We speak proverbially of the love of 
women — the tenderness of women, — and are not women 
far more animated and energetic than men, when one 
upon whom they have fastened their entire affection is 
assaulted ? Is not their pride in the person they love, 
and their jealousy on behalf of that person, far more 
keen and susceptible than the pride and jealousy which 
the harder sex feel for their friends? Which of the two, 
think you, would most vehemently resent an injury 
done to a son, or a slur cast upon him — the father or 
the mother ? I think the mother. And I think that 
something of this feminine impetuosity of spirit is 
manifest in the writings of the Apostle of Love. It is 
hallowed, of course, and chastened by the Spirit of God, 
which rested upon him as he wrote, but still there is 
the trait of natural character, which gave rise to the 
surname Boanerges. We hear the thunder, when he 
writes respecting " those who confess not that Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh," such a censure as the 
maudlin liberality of the nineteenth century would pro- 
nounce uncharitable ; " If any man come unto you, and 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 41 

bring not this doctrine, receive him not into jour house, 
neither bid him God speed." And if tradition may be 
trusted, he acted in the spirit of this precept, when, 
hearing that Cerinthus the heretic was in the bath- 
house, he fled from the baths, lest the roof of the 
building should fall in upon the assailant of divine 
truth — thus carrying out the principle laid down in the 
matter of Korah — " Remove, I pray you, from these 
wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be 
consumed in their sins." I cannot refrain from digress- 
ing a moment from our topic, to remark how strangely 
these words and these actions are at variance with the 
spirit of the generation on which we are fallen. To 
us such a mode of speaking and acting appears illiberal. 
And why ? I believe the account of this alteration in 
the feeling of Christians towards those who deprave or 
deny God's Truth, to be simply this. Love is waxed 
cold, as the Lord Himself predicted it should. We of 
this century have no love of Christ, or but a faint and 
chilled love ; and accordingly we have no jealousy for 
His honour, and no sensitiveness to any slight, which 
the irreverent seekers of a carnal wisdom may put upon 
Him. And our utter indifference to Him we represent 
to ourselves and others under the extraordinary name 
of liberality ! Oh ! we could not say Anathema Maran- 
atha to those who love Him not, we could not fling a 
sentence of excommunication at any soul of man, we 
could not refuse our hand, nor a place under our roof, 
even to the worst heretic that ever traversed God's 
Earth ! If a man announces to all the world that he 
considers Him, upon whom my hopes rest for time and 
for eternity, my Lord and my God, my guide through 
life, my support in death, — to be but a mythical 
character, the creation of man's brain, the fabulous 



42 The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 

impersonation of perfect virtue (or some such nonsense) 
— I can hear the announcement without wincing, — I 
am too liberal forsooth to evince any righteous indigna- 
tion ! But it is well for me to understand that this 
liberality of mine is so far from being love, that it is 
actually one feature of the want of love. If I were a 
son of love, I should he in my measure a son of thunder 
also. But having a cold heart — my regards for the 
Saviour being faint and feeble — I can bear to hear even 
His existence canvassed with true nineteenth century 
charity. But I have none of the charity of the first 
century, — none of the charity which called Elymas the 
sorcerer " a child of the devil, and an enemy of all 
righteousness," — none of the charity, whose accents, as 
directed against error in principle, and vice in practice, 
were these ; " Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how 
can ye escape the damnation of hell ? " 

Such is the account which I should be disposed to 
give of the significance of the name Boanerges, as 
applied to St. James and St. John. But whether or 
no we can discern the significance of the name, most 
certain it is that it was eminently significant, as being 
conferred by Him who knew what was in man, and has 
an insight into the secret character of all His creatures. 

To name any thing truly according to its character, 
implies of course an insight into its character. For 
which reason it is specially mentioned as one of the 
attributes of God, that He names the stars. " He telleth 
the number of the stars, and ealleth them all by their 
names." No man can name the stars appropriately (he 
may give them names drawn from the resources of his 
fancy — from imaginary figures in which they are 
grouped) ; but no man can give them names expressive 
of their character, because in truth he knows not what 



The Connexion of Speech with Reason. 43 

they are. What is a planet ? Is it a vast globe of 
superfluous fluid, — a repository of waters, dispensed 
with by the great Artificer in the formation of the 
earth, and now wheeling round on the skirts of the 
mundane system ? or is it an abode of life and intelli- 
gence, possibly the home and haunt of angels ? And 
what is a fixed star ? Is it a sun of other systems ? or 
is it a shred-coil of luminous star-dust, the fragment of 
a nebula? We may speculate on these things, and 
form or assail theories on the subject — but we are totally 
ignorant of the true character of a star, and so must 
remain, unless the range of our telescopes is enormously 
enlarged — an enlargement, the mechanical difficulties 
of which would be probably insuperable. The nature 
of a star is a mystery — and, consequently, the naming 
of a star is an attainment beyond our reach. 

We have spoken of Our Lord's intimate knowledge 
of the character of His disciples, a knowledge which 
He evinced in naming them. It is well to remind 
ourselves that He has a perfect knowledge of our 
characters — could at once pronounce the name, which 
would most suitably express them. His eyes, which 
are as fire, penetrate through all disguises, and read 
the ruling passion, the besetting sin, under every mask 
of outward circumstance and position. He has read 
our secret history from childhood : not that history 
which has been patent to the world, but that which 
has been transacted in the inner man, in the depths 
of our consciousness. Does He see that we are His 
indeed ? that amid all the backslidings of certain 
portions of our lives, amid all the intricacies of feeling 
and motive, amid all the alternating conflicts of passion 
and principle, there is in us a true and a loyal heart ? 
Let us but put this question to our consciences so- 



44 Note. 

lemnly, and compel from them an honest and candid 
answer to it ; — and we shall not have closed without 
benefit a Chapter, which to some may have appeared too 
abstruse and speculative for a religious treatise, on a 
subject so eminently practical as that of the Idle Word. 



NOTE ON CHAPTER II., p. 38. 

Classification is the great work of the Beason. 

In confirmation of this remark, it will be observed that the vices 
of the Reason dissolve themselves into faulty classifications. 

The first fault of the uneducated — the fruitful mother of all 
superstition — is over-hasty Classification. Two things associated 
accidentally (the wearing', for example, of a charm, and a recovery 
from illness) the uncultivated mind associates generally, and re- 
gards as essentially connected with one another. This is an 
instance of the vice of hasty Classification in its rudest form. 
Among the educated, the same vice shows itself in other forms. 
One notorious property of stupid people is their incapability of 
apprehending a distinction. They have laid down a rule, to 
which they doggedly adhere in cases which are obviously excep- 
tional — or they entertain some cherished view, under which they 
reduce all cases which have some superficial affinity with it. 
Thus they reckon things homogeneous, and class them under one 
head, which really have profound discrepancies. 

But there is an opposite defect of the Reason, — and it is one 
of refinement and over-cultivation. It is popularly termed the 
making a distinction without a difference. Legal acumen will 
often develope distinctions of this kind — distinctions of the 
subtlest character, and which in trufh have no existence. If we 
would reason aright, we must neither classify too roughly nor 
distinguish too finely — we must steer a mean between the two 
excesses. 

I shall illustrate further tbe two faulty processes, by pointing 
out the way in which they manifest themselves in the exposition 
of Holy Scripture. 



Note. 45 

Several of Our Lord's Parables are, by a person who does not 
minutely study them, classed roughly together as conveying pre- 
cisely the same lessons. Thus, the Parables of the Pounds and 
the Talents are supposed to have precisely the same scope. The 
Lost Sheep, tbe Lost Piece of Money, and the Prodigal Son, are 
all regarded as Parables on Kepentance — and the distinguishing 
details dismissed or overlooked. In the hands of a great scholar 
and divine (like Archbishop Trench) each of these Parables has 
its peculiar lessons and delicate applications — and the similarity 
between them is no longer specific — only generic — they are seen 
to differ as much as various species of grain differ, while all are 
grain. 

The opposite defect of over-refinement and multiplying dis- 
tinctions, is seen in the proceedings of the Harmonists. Where 
two narratives of Scripture obviously refer to the same event, 
they are induced by some trifling discrepancy of detail, to regard 
them as occurring on different occasions — a flagrant improbability 
on the score of common sense. Two witnesses giving truly their 
account of the same event, would never do so without superficial 
discrepancies — for no two minds refract the same event at pre« 
cisely the same angle. 

What is it that is faulty in the man who generalizes hastily, 
and the man who distinguishes too finely ? It is the Reason, the 
mind, the judgment. 

Therefore, Classification is an essential property of the Eeason, 
and according as it is justly or viciously performed, the Reason 
is in a sound or unhealthy state. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE HEAVENLY ANALOGY OE THE CONNEXION OE 
SPEECH WITH REASON. 

" En tf>« fogtmung toas tf)£ Max's, antt xty SSBtortr teas toitf) 
©ott, antr t^e Sgaorir ioas ©rotr."— John i. 1. 

The doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is the great 
mystery of the Christian Religion. For surely of all 
mysteries that must be the deepest and most mys- 
terious, whose subject is the Nature of the Invisible 
and Infinite God. 

If then upon all lesser mysteries we can expect only 
partial light, while here below; much more is it 
reasonable to suppose that upon this " mystery of 
mysteries " a cloud will ever rest. Of Jehovah it is 
written that "clouds and darkness are round about 
Him." His nature and attributes must be ever (more 
or less) shrouded to the human intellect — at all events 
while " confined and pestered in this pinfold here," — 
while cooped within the trammels of an animal nature. 
The most which the wisest and holiest man in the 
world can hope to apprehend of such a mystery, is but 
little. 

Still, as the doctrine of the Trinity is unquestionably 
the Truth of Cod, and the Truth cannot really be at 
variance with an enlightened Reason, — we may hope 
without presumption, under the guidance of Scripture 



The Heavenly Analogy, Sfc. 47 

and the illumination of the Holy Grhost, to gain partial 
glimpses into its significance — glimpses like those 
which, through the tumbling sea of mist beneath his 
feet, a wanderer in the mountains catches of a patch of 
verdure on the bosom of the hill, as a slant ray of sun- 
shine shoots athwart his path — glimpses sufficient to 
make us easily believe that, if the full flood of Divine 
Light could but be poured upon the soul, as it will be 
in the day when " we shall know even as we are known," 
the whole doctrine would stand before us in all its pro- 
portions, as a fact absolutely necessary and essential, 
and harmonizing with all other facts in the whole 
compass of Truth. 

The prosecution of the subject, of which these pages 
treat, leads us naturally to an illustration of this Car- 
dinal Mystery. 

We saw, in our first Chapter, that Speech or Lan- 
guage is, as a fact, connected with Reason. Reasonable 
beings are those who can speak — and conversely, all 
who can speak are reasonable beings. The apparent 
exceptions to this rule have been already 1 considered. 
On the one hand, it might be alleged that the dumb 
are reasonable beings, — yet the dumb cannot speak. 
Reason, therefore, it might be argued, may exist with- 
out Speech. — To this it may be answered that actual 
sound is not essential to the faculty of Speech. Speech 
is the faculty of conveying to other persons (not mere 
feelings and emotions, but) the processes of the under- 
standing. The dumb can do this (and with marvellous 
intelligence) upon their fingers — showing hereby that 
they possess the essentials of Speech. 

1 See Note to Chapter I. 



48 The Heavenly Analogy of the 

Again it might be alleged, though perhaps more 
wantonly than in earnest, that the whole tribe of imi- 
tative birds speak, .and employ certain words ; — yet 
these birds are not rational. It is not therefore true 
that all creatures which can speak are reasonable 
creatures. But here again it may be answered that 
sound — even articulate sound — is not the great essen- 
tial of Speech. Speech is the power of conveying to 
other persons in logical method the processes of one's 
own understanding. Birds, which imitate the human 
voice, aee imitators and nothing more : the words 
which they speak they never originate, but catch them 
up from men, — nor is there the remotest proof that, 
when they utter them, they connect with them any 
intelligent meaning. 

And let me, by the way, call attention to the circum- 
stance, that an Echo stands in the same relation to 
Inanimate Nature in which an imitative Bird stands 
to Animated Nature. An Echo is the mimicry of 
Speech by Matter. The language of an imitative Bird 
is the mimicry of Speech by Animated Nature. Neither 
Matter nor animated Nature can really speak — neither 
of them can communicate to others (in method of dis- 
course) ideas originated by themselves. But they can 
imitate Speech — or rather they can imitate its outward 
form, — of the intelligence, which constitutes its essence 
and spirit, they are not partakers. 

We must be prepared then to admit that Eeason 
and Speech are essentially connected together, inter- 
twined one with another. The Homeric epithets 
fxipoxj/ and avSrjets (articulate speaking) characterize 
the rational creature Man. The power of Speech in- 
heres in the faculty of Eeason. Eeason is* revealed 



Connexion of Speech with Reason, 49 

by Speech. Speech is the unfolding, the manifest- 
ation, the development, the communication, the mes- 
sage, the utterance, the outcoming, the revelation, of 
Reason. 

Yet, though essentially intertwined, — though Eeason 
implies the power of Speech, and the power of Speech 
implies Eeason, — Reason and Speech are clearly dif- 
ferent faculties. Do you wish to see them apart, in 
order to ascertain their distinctness ? We can show 
them to you in severance one from another, or rather, 
we can show them to you, one latent, and the other 
active. Take the case of a man completely absorbed 
in his own reflections, — Sir Isaac Newton, for example, 
engaged, after seeing the apple fall to the ground, in 
thinking out the law of gravitation. Wrapped in 
deepest calculation and self-communing, he sits with 
eyes cast down, and arms folded, and utters not a word. 
Speak to him- — call him by name — he does not answer, 
he is dumb — his mind is abstracted from the outer 
world. Lay your hand on the shoulder of such an 
one, — he looks up with an exclamation of surprise, and 
you say to him — "So you have found your tongue, 
have you?" Perhaps it is to be reckoned among the 
accuracies of language, that we do not say, " You have 
found your Speech" but " You have found your 
tongue" — hereby implying that the faculty of Speech 
was latent in him all the while, but that its instrument, 
the tongue, had been without exercise. Yes, — he had 
not spoken, — he had not exercised the faculty of com- 
municating his ideas to others, — but he had been 
reasoning all the time, and if Sir Isaac Newton be the 
case imagined, reasoning to some purpose. There is 
an instance of Reason, independent of Speech. 

However, it might suffice to say, by way of proving 

I. W. T> 



50 The Heavenly Analogy oftlie 

their distinctness, that the words Reason and Speech 
on the surface convey distinct ideas to every mind. 

And yet, distinct as these things are, Speech is 
wrapped up in Reason ; — so that wherever the faculty 
of Reason is, there the faculty of Speech must be. 
This was proved in the last Chapter, where we showed 
that Human Language supplies us with a classification 
of objects, by assigning generic words to embrace a 
great number of individuals. To classify, however, is, 
as we then pointed out, the work of the mind. It is 
the mind which, contemplating objects, arranges them 
under different heads. Wherever the mind or Reason 
exists, it must have this power, latent in it, of contem- 
plation and arrangement, and accordingly, wherever the 
mind is, there must be in embryo the faculty of Speech. 
So that if we were asked which of the two is the earlier 
— the Reason or the Speech — our answer must be, that 
they are so inextricably intertwined together, that 
neither the one nor the other is the earlier. They are 
coeval. They are twin faculties, — the moment of their 
birth the same. May we not say that in a child, as 
a general rule, the development of Speech keeps pace 
exactly with the development of the understanding ? 

So it is with Light and Colour, which I have already 
employed as an illustration. Colour and Light are 
distinct things. We have distinct notions, when we 
pronounce the words Colour and Light. But, as 
Colour inheres in the Light, — is a natural property of 
the Light, — it is impossible to say with Truth either 
that Colour existed before Light, or that Light existed 
before Colour. They, too, are twin births. At the 
same point of time, when the Most High issued His 
first creative fiat, Light sprang into existence, and 
Colour with it. 



Connexion of Speech with Reason. 51 

Now we are told in the first Chapter of Genesis, 
that Man was made " in the Image of God." We 
cannot understand this assertion of the Body of Man. 
For God is incorporeal — " He is a Spirit," saith the 
Scripture ; — as the first of our Articles assures us, 
" He hath neither Body, Parts, nor Passions." We 
are driven then to the conclusion that the resemblance 
between God and Man — the " Image," which was 
originally stamped upon our Nature in the minting 
of it, — stands in the Mind or Intelligence, — in that 
part which discriminates us from the brute creation. 
I say in that part ivhich discriminates us from the 
brute creation; — for that it does not stand in the 
soul or animal nature, may be inferred from the cir- 
cumstance that brutes have this animal nature, and 
yet the Image of God is never said to have been 
impressed upon them. The Spirit or Mind of Man, 
then, presents us with an Image of God ; and in 
examining the Spirit or Mind of Man, we may expect 
— we are warranted by Holy Scripture in expecting — 
to find some adumbration, some dim shadowy outline, 
of the Nature of the Most High. 

If, however, we had only this notice of Holy Scrip- 
ture, it would behove us to be very cautious indeed in 
drawing inferences from it. The subject is one upon 
which Angels may well fear to tread, — into which only 
a fool would rush with presumptuous curiosity. At 
the same time, while it is a point of reverence and 
right feeling not to seek to be wise beyond what is 
written, it is also a point of holy ambition, to seek to 
be wise up to that which is written. And there is 
another passage (or rather there are many other pas- 
sages of Holy Scripture) which throw a singular light 
upon the subject before us. They are those in which 
3) 2 



52 The Heavenly Analogy oftlie 

the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is called " the 
Word." " In the beginning " (thus opens St. John's 
Gospel ; — how like an oracular voice dropping from 
heaven, it sounds, — how full of mystery and sublimity!) 
" was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was God." This term, "the Word," was not 
original with St. John. It was a term much employed 
by the Gnostic Heretics, to denote an emanation from 
the Deity. St. John takes it up, and adopts it, and 
applies it to Our Blessed Lord as the true Emanation 
from God. But it matters not at all whether he in- 
vented the term, or adopted it. As he has adopted it, 
it has now the seal of Inspiration, — and we must be- 
lieve that in the term, as applied to Our Lord, there 
is a deep significance, which perhaps a prayerful con- 
sideration, and comparison of other inspired notices, 
may reveal to us. 

Man's Reason was framed in the Image of God, — 
and Our Lord is called the Word ; those are the two 
Scriptural intimations, which guide us by the hand 
into part of the truth respecting the Divine Nature. 

We have seen that Eeason involves a thing distinct 
from itself, namely, Speech, or the power of communi- 
cating the processes of the Reason — so that whosoever 
has the faculty of Reason, has, in the faculty of Reason, 
the faculty o Speech or of the Word. 

We have seen that though Reason wraps up Speech 
in itself, yet we can conceive of Reason as energizing 
latently, and of the faculty of Speech as having no 
exercise. 

And we have seen, that neither Reason nor Speech 
can make any claim to priority of existence — that they 
are twin faculties, born at the same instant. 

Now listen to what the Holy Catholic Church has 



Connexion of Speech with Reason. 53 

gathered from the Scripture respecting the Nature of 
God. 

First, she says, that there is a Trinity in Unity, 
that is, more than one Person in the Divine Nature. 
Man's spirit, the Bible says, was made in the Image of 
that Nature. And in Man's spirit there are at all 
events two faculties, Reason and Speech. The Son, or 
Second Person in the Divine Nature, goes by the name 
of " the Word of the Father," that is, He stands to 
the Father in the same relation as that in which the 
Word, or Utterance, or Speech, stands to the Reason 
or Understanding. 

Secondly : St. John intimates that there was a period 
when, although both Blessed Persons existed, yet the 
Son was wrapped in the Bosom of the Father, — when, 
though the Word was, yet the Word came not forth. 
" The only Begotten Son, ivhich is in the bosom of the 
Father, He hath declared Him." That is like Reason, 
with the faculty of Speech latent in it, — not put forth. 

Thirdly : the Church holds and proclaims that the 
Majesty of these Persons is " Co-eternal ;" that "the 
Father is eternal, and the Son eternal also " — that 
therefore to attribute priority of existence to the 
Father, would be to fall into the very heresy of Arius, 
condemned by upwards of three hundred Bishops as- 
sembled in Council at Nicsea. The adumbration of 
this in the human spirit is that twin birth of Reason 
and Speech, to which we have already called attention. 
They are both (as we have seen; coeval. 

"But," an opponent might reply, "the Catholic 
Doctrine is, that in God there are not only two distinct 
faculties (which I could understand, and to some ex- 
tent realize) — but two distinct Persons." No doubt 
it is so. And perhaps it c:m be shown by means of 



54 The Heavenly Analogy of the 

another intimation of Scripture, that at all events there 
must be more than one Person in the Godhead. For 
it is written that " God is Love " — that Love is the 
essential nature of God. Love was His nature, long 
ages before the world began, before there were any- 
human beings to love, before those morning stars of 
creation dawned upon the brow of time, — before the 
angels had sprung into existence. God was Love from 
all eternity. But what does Love imply? Does it 
not imply a Person, or Persons, to be loved ? If there 
was only one Person in the Universe, a gigantic soli- 
tude reigning all around him, could He be Love? 
would it not be subverting the definition of Love, to 
say that He was so ? The fact is, that what St. Paul 
says of a Mediator, is true of Love — " a Mediator is 
not a Mediator of one ;" — there must be two parties 
to make him a Mediator. Similarly we may say, 
" Love is not of one." It, too, implies more than one 
party. 

We may learn from what has been said that there is 
no doctrine of the Scriptures and the Church, however 
mysterious on the surface, which will not by and by 
reveal to us something of its propriety and harmony, 
if we diligently read the Word of God with thought 
and prayer, and patiently ponder and compare its 
statements. The first point which it becomes us to 
ascertain, is, that the Holy Scriptures are from God. 
There are many books of evidence (which it is now 
the fashion to depreciate) which have quite set this 
question at rest for every impartial and candid in- 
quirer. When it is set at rest in your mind, then 
the remainder of your path is clear. You must 
accept every thing which God says in the Scripture, 
however many difficulties it may present to your Eea- 



Connexion of Speech with Reason. 55 

son. But your difficulties shall diminish daily, if you 
will patiently read on, fastening your belief on the sure 
testimony, and praying earnestly for the Light of the 
Spirit. Beautiful discoveries shall hurst upon you, as 
you pursue this course, — discoveries which shall have 
in them an element both of intellectual and spiritual 
enjoyment, until at length, disenthralled from the body, 
"we shall know even as also we are known." So have 
I seen a traveller catching at first through tangled 
boughs disjointed glimpses of some great City, to 
which he is journeying, but by and by he emerges 
from the woodland, and a sudden turn brings him to 
the open brow of a hill, and there, beneath his feet, lies 
the City, in the clear outline of its fair proportions, its 
pinnacles smitten by the sun, and the silver river inter- 
secting its thronged maze of streets. 

We have seen, Reader, that Speech in the nature of 
man, represents Christ in the Nature of God. This, 
independently of the Connexion of Speech with Reason, 
impresses a value and a dignity upon the faculty of 
Speech . When you reason, and communicate to others 
the results of your reasoning, you are adumbrating in 
the limits of a finite nature the Nature of the Infinite 
One. Would you take any thing which represents 
Christ, and was intended to remind us of Christ, and 
make it the instrument and minister of sin ? Would 
you, for example, take the consecrated elements of the 
Eucharist, representing (as they do) His Body and 
Blood, and devote them to the purposes of intem- 
perance and excess ? and shall any child of man take 
this faculty of speech, and degrade it to vain, or pro- 
fane, or unclean communications, making it the instru- 
ment of morally corrupting others, and of being morally 
corrupted himself? 



56 The Heavenly Analogy, Sfc. 

Sotf or God, Only Begotten of the Father, who 
hast sanctified the utterance of the human lips, by 
taking unto Thyself the title of the Word, touch their 
hearts ^ith penitence, who have so offended, and, as 
we would all flee from, the contagion of a pestilence 
which can terminate only in death, so make us to flee 
from the moral pestilence of filthy talking and idle 
words, and set Thy watch and seal upon the door of 
our lips ! 



CHAPTER TV. 

AN IDLE WORD DEFINED ESOM THE DECALOGUE. 

" ^Jjott sfjalt not go tip anir troton as a takbcartr among ti>p 
people." — Leyiticijs xix. 16. 

Solomon echoes this precept of the Law in his Pro- 
verbs ; — " A talebearer revealeth secrets : but he that 
is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter." And 
again, chap. xx. 19 : " He that goeth about as a tale- 
bearer revealeth secrets : therefore meddle not with 
him that flattereth with his lips." And in echoing the 
precept, the wise king illustrates it. For the law 
contains a simple prohibition, without a reason as- 
signed. But Solomon gives a reason. One chief mis- 
chief of talebearing is that the talebearer is apt to 
repeat things which have been told him in confidence ; 
or, at all events, which had much better be considered 
as confidences, even if they were not communicated on 
that express understanding. 

It is a startling fact that so large a proportion of 
the preceptive part of the Bible should deal with sins 
of the tongue, and deal with them so severely. I can- 
not help thinking that this feature of the Scriptural 
code is an incidental evidence of its having come from 
a supernatural Source, or, in other words, being in- 
spired. For probably no human treatise of moral 



58 An Idle Word 

philosophy ever gave to words such an importance 
as the Holy Scriptures assign to them. Certainly 
Aristotle's great treatise on human duty ignores words 
altogether. And one can see that in any estimate of 
moral subjects made by mere Eeason, the words of men 
(as being after all a passing breath) would be taken 
little account of, and the attention fastened simply on 
their actions and sentiments. But not such is the 
estimate of Him, whose " thoughts are not as our 
thoughts." Throw all the precepts of the Old and 
New Testament into one code ; and how very large a 
proportion of them will be found to turn upon words ! 
What a serious, austere view the Sacred Writers take 
of what man would call slips of the tongue! None 
more serious and austere than Our Blessed Lord Him- 
self, who yet was by no means an austere man, who 
came eating and drinking, who went into all societies, 
shunned no company, and whose Sacred Heart was a 
fountain of most pure and beautiful compassion, in 
which was mirrored the Love of the Eternal Father, 
and the sympathy of God with all His creatures. The 
Pharisees, convinced of the Divine Mission of Christ, 
had been belying their convictions by attributing His 
works to Beelzebub, and inwardly flattering themselves 
doubtless with the thought that their disbelief lay in 
words only, not in the sentiments of the heart. Our 
Blessed Lord solemnly warns them that this discre- 
pancy between words and sentiments was in fact the 
unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost ; and 
then, as His manner was, coming down from the ex- 
tremest form of the sin He was condemning to its 
milder and more excusable shapes, He said, "But I say 
unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, 
they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment." 



defined from the Decalogue. 59 

And where Our Lord sets the key-note, all the writers 
of Holy Scripture chime in in unison. Extract all the 
verses of the Book of Proverbs, which have reference to 
foolish talk, bad talk, or too much talk ; and you will 
have a very large number of verses. Add to these the 
precepts of St. Paul forbidding corrupt communication, 
and prescribing speech with grace seasoned with salt. 
Close the list with that paragraph of St. James's Epistle, 
which forms the body of the third chapter, and which 
speaks in such awful terms of the widespread mischief 
done by sins of the tongue, and with that later passage 
of the same Epistle, in which the Apostle reiterates 
with emphasis the caution against swearing contained 
in the Sermon on the Mount, " But above all things, 
my brethren, swear not ;" and you have not only a por- 
tion of space devoted to this subject which seems to 
mere Reason disproportionate to its merits ; but also, 
which is more remarkable, the warnings against this 
class of sin are more deeply serious in tone than those 
against almost any other. 

Now whatever we may imagine in the vanity of our 
minds, we may be quite sure that the Word of God has 
Reason on its side. And we may be quite sure also 
that we shall have a glimpse of that Reason, if we will 
but look for it carefully and devoutly. Physicians, it 
has been well said, make an immediate and accurate 
judgment of health by the state of the tongue. And 
there is the same connexion between a healthy tongue 
and a healthy condition of body as between a sound 
heart and sound wholesome words. The tongue is 
symptomatic in both cases. Our Lord says so. " A good 
man, out of the good treasure of the heart, bringeth 
forth good things : and an evil man, out of the evil 



60 An Idle Word 

treasure, bringeth forth evil things ;" " Out of the 
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." 

But there is another analogy between mental and 
bodily health, which is still more to the point. Serious 
derangement in the natural constitution of all bodies is 
often produced by the most trifling causes. The blight 
which destroys some articles of sustenance, the pes- 
tilence which lays low its thousands and tens of thou- 
sands is perhaps traceable to the presence in the air, 
or in food, of certain very minute animalcules, which 
are taken into the plant through its leaves, or into the 
human system through the lungs. These animalcules 
are possibly so small, that it requires a powerful micro- 
scope to discover them. And in the body itself the 
ultimate molecules, whose arrangement constitutes 
health or disease, are so very insignificant that in many 
cases the disorder could never be ascertained by the 
eye. An almost infinitesimal quantity of poison, in- 
sinuated into the living body through a puncture or a 
scratch, will spread like wildfire through the system, 
and either communicate mortal disease, or cause morti- 
fication in a vital part. These are all instances in Na- 
ture, in which agents, trifling in bulk and to the eye, 
have yet a most potent effect on the entire frame, both 
of vegetables and animals. Why should there be no 
such agents — agents of similar apparent insignificance, 
agents of similar deadly force — in the moral world? 
We believe that there are such. We believe that words 
are such an agent. Things in themselves light and 
insignificant, blown up like so many bubbles from the 
surface of the character, to burst as soon as they are 
formed. Things said in a moment of excitement, and 
forgotten as soon as the excitement which gave birth 



defined from the Decalogue. 61 

to them is over. Things as transient as the morning 
cloud and the early dew. But it does not follow that 
they are unaccompanied by serious effects. The moral 
frame of each one of us is, like the animal frame, con- 
tinually taking in influences, and assimilating nourish- 
ment from all sorts of sources. The words of other 
men, the casual expressions of their sentiments, have 
a strong influence upon our characters. Our own words 
have a reflex influence upon ourselves ; not only coming 
from the heart, but reacting upon the heart which sent 
them forth. 

Thus far, we have offered some observations which 
may justify our regarding the Idle Word as a matter 
of sufficient importance to form the subject of a sepa- 
rate treatise. In this and the following Chapter we 
propose to define " an Idle Word " from the Decalogue, 
before considering the significance of Our Lord's lan- 
guage in so denominating it. The whole of human 
duty really founds in the Decalogue. There is no 
precept of the Gospel which is not found in germ 
and principle in the Ten Commandments given to 
Israel on Mount Sinai. And the more we study those 
Ten Commandments, the more shall we be impressed 
with the great perfection of the outline of Human 
Duty, which is here traced by the finger of God Him- 
self. 

The Decalogue falls, as we all know, into two tables, 
one of which guides man in his relations to God, the 
other in his relations to his fellow-men. Now it is 
surely observable that in each Table there should be 
a precept respecting words ; in the first, " Thou shalt 
not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain ;" in 
the second, " Thou shalt not bear false witness against 
thy neighbour." According to the ordinary (though 



62 An Idle Word 

by no means universally accepted) division of the 
Tables, the first contains four commandments, the 
latter six. Thus, if this code of moral precepts be as 
we believe, a perfect and exact one, one-fourth part of 
our duty to Grod, and one-sixth part of our duty to 
man, have to do with the words which we speak of 
them respectively. 

In the present Chapter we shall deal exclusively with 
the Ninth Commandment, reserving the Third for 
subsequent consideration. 

The extreme case to which the Ninth Commandment 
applies is that of bearing false testimony to the detri- 
ment of another in a court of justice, a sin so universally 
abhorred that it is superfluous to point out or dwell 
upon the heinousness of it. But let us attempt to 
extract the principle of this Commandment ; for the 
court of judicature, and the solemn oath, and the other 
formalities of the law, are only the husk in which the 
principle is wrapped up. The principle, then, is this ; 
that we shall in no respect injure our neighbour's 
reputation. It will not be denied that reputation is 
a very precious treasure. Life would not be worth 
having, if a man had no sort of credit from the society 
in which he moved, if he stood low in the esteem of 
every soul which formed his little circle. To be re- 
spected by others who know us, to have some influence 
with them, to carry some weight, this is in itself a form 
of life. Says St. Francis of Sales, " We live three lives, 
a corporal life which stands in the union of soul and 
body; a spiritual life which stands in the grace of God; 
and a civil life, which stands in our reputation. The 
corporal life is stifled by murder ; the spiritual life is 
stifled by sin ; and the civil life is stifled by slander, 
which is a species of murder, inasmuch as it destroys 



defined from the Decalogue. 63 

a species of life." It is most true. A blow aimed at a 
man's reputation injures him quite as effectually, though 
in another form, as a blow aimed at his body; and 
most men are far more sensitive to the first of these 
injuries than to the second ; they dread the tongue of 
the calumniator much more than the weapon of the 
highwayman. The name of " accuser of the brethren " 
is given in Scripture to the author of evil ; and the 
title is illustrated in the holy volume by the narrative 
of his attempt to ruin the fair reputation which Job 
enjoyed in the Court of Heaven. The slanderer then 
acts in imitation of the devil ; and, as children act in 
imitation of their parents, he may be truly called the 
devil's child. 

But the ninth precept of the Law reaches to sins 
which fall far short of slander. Slander is a false 
assertion to the detriment of our neighbour's character. 
But in fact any assertion to the detriment of his 
character is forbidden, whether it be true or false. 
Some one perhaps will say ; " I do not see this in the 
Commandment : it is false witness against our neigh- 
bour, not any witness against him which is forbidden." 
But consider what a hazard even a substantially true 
assertion runs of being false in the general impression 
created by it. The bare fact alleged may be true 
enough, but if none of the evidence in favour of the 
accused, and none of the extenuating circumstances be 
alleged side by side with the fact, we violate truth in 
the general effect of our words upon the hearer, though 
the particular details of them may be correct. If we 
exhibit a man's vices only, and conceal the proportion 
which those vices bear to his virtues, we calumniate 
him quite as effectually, as if we ascribe to him a vice 
he does not possess. A man may have a defective 



64 An Idle Word 

feature or features, and yet the general proportion of 
his person may be so good, and the general cast of his 
countenance so pleasing, that the ill effect of the features 
which are awry is either modified or entirely carried 
off. It is an untrue representation of that man to say 
merely that he has too prominent an eye, or too thick 
and coarse a lip ; that may be the case, but it is not a 
fair, because it is not a complete, description of his 
personal appearance. And, similarly, if my neighbour 
has been overtaken (perhaps by surprise) in a grievous 
fault, and if I, for want of better matter to entertain 
my company withal, blaze abroad this fault of his, but 
am wholly silent as to his good character up to that time, 
and as to the prayers and struggles against that par- 
ticular sin which he may have made, my witness against 
him becomes as certainly false in the general impression 
created by it, and therefore as mischievously injurious, 
as if I stated of him what was not matter of fact. In 
a word, if a fair account of a man's faults and sins is to 
be given in conversation, the common rule of justice 
must be attended to, that evidence shall be heard for 
the defendant ; which if it were done, a true verdict 
might be arrived at by the company. But such evidence 
never is alleged, nor does any party appear in the 
interests of the defendant, so that the verdict never can 
escape being false, and the evidence by which it is 
arrived at is to all intents and purposes false witness. 

This consideration evidently makes it exceedingly 
difficult for us, and practically all but impossible to say 
any thing to our neighbour's disadvantage in common 
conversation, which shall not be more or less false 
in its general effect on the minds of the hearers. If 
they gathered no other conclusion from our words, than 
that the allegation were true as an isolated fact, it 



defined from the Decalogue. 65 

might be all well and good. But this we know from 
our own experience they never do. With the speed of 
lightning we all of us proceed from adverse facts to a 
general unfavourable judgment on a man's character, 
and the devil being in the ear of the company as well 
as in the tongue of the accuser, the thought lises up 
instantaneously in their minds, " Has such a man 
indeed done this or that ? Then what a villain he must 
be ! how must all confidence in him be at an end !" 

One element of mischief in the habits of the tale- 
bearer has been thus exhibited. The talebearer can 
hardly escape the charge of being a detractor. But 
even without positive detraction he may do great mis- 
chief by disclosing private confidences, or things which 
had better be considered as such. The confidences 
which are so disclosed are generally of a petty and in- 
significant kind ; idle gossip is usually the sphere in 
which such communications live and move and have 
their being, according to that word of the Apostle, 
which attributes this particular form of sin to women 
without families, who have nothing to do ; " Withal 
they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to 
house " (how clear an echo have we here of the Mosaic 
precept, "Thou shalt not go up and doivn as a tale- 
bearer among thy people ") ; and not only " idle, but 
tattlers also, and basybodies, speaking things which 
they ought not." And because of the usually con- 
temptible character of such gossip, it is not sufficiently 
considered how real an enemy to society the man or 
woman who indulges in it is. One great difference be- 
tween God's estimate of sin and ours is, that God 
considers a sin in its tendency and natural operation, 
apart from all the checks and hindrances which impede 
its full development. Man, on the other hand, judges 

I. W. E 



66 An Idle Word 

of it, not by the mischief which it has a tendency to do, 
but by that which it actually does. To see the full 
evil of revealing confidences, we must consider what 
the result to Society would be, if every one revealed 
them. Suppose that the sins of the early life of every 
man, known at present only to his family and friends, 
were blazed abroad when he has attained to eminence 
and is in a position of usefulness ; suppose that every 
minister of Religion thought himself at liberty to di- 
vulge the secrets entrusted to him by burdened con- 
sciences in confession ; suppose that the secret history 
of many a family which stands well before the world 
and possibly is at the head of affairs, were divulged by 
one of its members ; unquestionably many facts would 
thus be brought to light which are now little dreamt 
of; but what would become of that confidence between 
man and man, on which the whole social fabric is built ? 
Trust in our fellow-men, which is the foundation of all 
social virtues, and which is so essential to the love of 
them, would be at an end for ever. And I believe it 
would not be long before trust in God, which is the 
foundation of all religious virtues, would take its flight 
also. 

The safe rule to be deduced from the foregoing ob- 
servations as to the government of the tongue in Society, 
is to stand at a very respectful distance from all such 
topics as our neighbour's conduct and character. We 
shall escape all risk of doing him injury, if we never 
repeat any thing we may have heard to his disadvantage ; 
and if to this we add the practice of stating simply 
(and without exaggeration) what we know in his fa- 
vour, when we hear him attacked, we shall not only be 
free from the charge of wronging, but also do some- 
thing to right him in the estimate of others. 



defined from the Decalogue. G7 

Of course this rule, like all other rules, must be 
understood with those qualifications which common 
sense, other precepts of Scripture, and the very prin- 
ciple of the rule itself imply. Circumstances may and 
do arise, in which it is right and necessary to take away 
a man's natural life. Not that even in this case our 
duty to our neighbour is for an instant suspended ; but 
our duty to a single neighbour is overruled by our duty 
to Society. The murderer is rightly executed, the care 
which the Law has for the lives of innocent subjects 
overruling the care which it has for the life of a single 
guilty one. And, similarly, circumstances may arise 
(and do arise) in which it is not necessary only, but 
right, to say things adverse to our neighbour's fair 
fame, and thus to take away his civil life. Ifc is a 
positive charity to expose impostors who deceive man- 
kind ; of a wolf in sheep's clothing we shall do well to 
point out the claws, and to show the inconsistency of 
his life with his professions, lest he should devour 
other sheep ; and this holds good, whether the person 
against whom Society is to be put on its guard be 
vicious in practice or erroneous in principle. Error in 
fundamental points of Religion is exceedingly perilous 
to young and simple souls ; and it is a maudlin, 
spurious charity, too popular at the present day, — nay, 
if we are in a position to teach and influence others, 
it may be the ruin of some tender soul, — to salve over 
such errors with unctuous flattery of the life of their 
professors. Not so did the Apostle, who is the great 
example of the grace of Love in a sinful man. St. 

I John did not think that pretty philosophical senti- 
ments and a blameless life were to compound for vital 
error in doctrine. " Whosoever transgresseth," cried 
he, " and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath 
e2 



G8 An Idle Word 

not God : he that ahideth in the doctrine of Christ, 
hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any 
unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not 
into your house, neither bid him Grod speed." 

But these and similar qualifications having been 
made, it remains for us seriously to put it to our own 
consciences, — " How often, when I have spread abroad 
something to another's disadvantage, or even attacked 
another's character, have I been justified in so doing by 
considerations of the interests of Society, or the interests 
of truth ? " And remember, in self-examination on this 
point, that our unfavourable testimony may have really 
more or less answered one of these ends, and yet may 
not have been intended by ourselves to do so. There 
may possibly have been good grounds for bearing 
witness against our neighbour : but we did not proceed 
to it upon these grounds, but merely from want of 
something better to say, mixed up perhaps with a 
grain or two of personal dislike. 

I must just glance before concluding, at the word 
" false," in the Ninth Commandment, and give it a 
prominence which it has not received hitherto. In- 
sincerity is falsehood ; and all insincere apologies for 
our neighbour, or commendations of him (an extreme 
into which some well-meaning persons are apt to run 
from a dread of calumny) , are to be avoided. Though 
we should endeavour, if possible, to defend him when 
attacked, it must always be by honest arguments, such 
as we ourselves think to be valid evidence in his favour. 
Above all, we must beware of salving over a personal 
aversion by hollow and false compliments, a hateful 
hypocrisy which transpires very quickly, and which 
never fails to inspire the listener with a just disgust. 
Let us remember that " he that hideth hatred with 



j 



defined from the Decalogue. 69 

lying lips, (as well as he that uttereth a slander,) is a 
fool." Let us take heed of coming under that animad- 
version of the wise man ; " He that hateth dissembleth 
with his lips " (maketh his voice gracious), " and layeth 
Up deceit within him. When he speaketh fair, believe 
him not : for there are seven abominations in his 
heart." " Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wick- 
edness shall be showed before the whole congregation." 
The subject of this Chapter has been a moral duty, 
which, insignificant as it seems at first, we have shown 
to have an important bearing on the welfare of Society. 
Let none imagine that such a topic is unspiritual or 
unevangelical. We have, it is true, nothing to 
preach but the unsearchable riches of Christ ; but 
then there are unsearchable riches in His Example 
as well as in His Atonement, in His precepts as well 
as in His promises, which equally require to be unfolded 
in the view of His Church. And in order to connect 
with His pure and spotless life the precept which we 
have been attempting to illustrate, we need only adduce 
the words of Psalm xv., which is a description, by 
anticipation, of that perfectly righteous Man, whom 
God would accept in virtue of His own meritorious 
obedience, who should abide for ever in the true 
tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man ; who 
should rest for ever upon that heavenly Hill, whereof 
Mount Zion was but a type : — " Lord, who shall abide 
in Thy tabernacle ? who shall dwell in Thy holy 
hill? . . . He that backbiteih not with his tongue, 
nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a 

reproach against his neighbour He that doeth 

these things shall never be moved." 



CHAPTER Y. 

AN IDLE WOED DEFINED EEOM THE DECALOQTJE. 

K ®f)ou sfjalt not take tf)e jganu of tfje Xortr tfjp. ©ofc in oain : 
for tlje ICortr foill not ijoltt f)hn gutltUss tfjat tafcetf) H|t8 
iSame in bain." — Exodus xx. 7. 

This precept, like the rest of God's commandments, 
is exceedingly broad. For by " the Name of God" is 
not to be understood merely the designation in speech 
of the Divine Being. Names in old times being signifi- 
cant of the characteristics of the persons bearing them, 
the Name of God in Holy Scripture is often put for 
the character and attributes of the Divine Being ; the 
most remarkable example of which mode of speaking is 
to be found in the proclamation of God's Name to 
Moses, that proclamation being nothing else than an 
enumeration of God's attributes in Moses' hearing ; 
" The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, 
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and 
transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear 
the guilty." If in the Third Commandment the Name 
of God be understood in this broad sense, every sort of 
profaneness, all desecration of things connected with 
God will be forbidden by it. It is, however, our present 
purpose to deal with it only so far as it forbids wrong 
words ? against which in the first instance it is directed. 



An Idle Word, Sfc. 71 

There is a great resemblance between the Decalogue 
and the Lord's Prayer, indicating to a thoughtful mind 
that both proceeded from one and the same Author. 
The Decalogue falls into two tables, the Lord's Pra} T er 
no less obviously into two distinct classes of petitions. 
The first table of the Decalogue prescribes our duty to 
God; the second our duty to our fellow-men. And 
similarly the first section of the Lord's Prayer contains 
petitions for God's honour, kingdom, and service ; the 
second section petitions for the supply of man's wants. 

We are apt to think our whole duty discharged, if 
we have been blameless in our conduct towards our 
fellow-men. But the Law of God corrects that error 
with a high hand, teaching us that the most fundamental 
duty of man, that which has the earliest claim upon 
him, is " to love the Lord his God with all his heart, 
and with all his mind, and with all his soul, and with 
all his strength." And, similarly, we are apt to think 
that in prayer we need sue for nothing more than the 
supply of our own needs, bread, mercy, grace, and so 
forth. But the Lord's Prayer corrects this error with 
a high hand, teaching us that God's honour, His cause 
and service, lies nearer to the heart of a true disciple 
than even his own needs. 

And to come to particulars, there is no one who does 
not see the marked resemblance between the Third 
Commandment ('* Thou shalt not take the Name of the 
Lord thy God in vain") and the. first petition of the 
Lord's Prayer ("Hallowed be Thy Name"). The 
Commandment prohibits that, the opposite of which 
the Prayer solicits. We are bidden not to desecrate 
God's Name ; and we pray that we may consecrate or 
hallow it. When we sincerely, in a spirit of love and 
reverence, call God " our Father," we fulfil the First 



72 An Idle Word 

Commandment, professing Him to be our God, and 
repudiating all other. When we say, with the spirit 
and with the understanding also, " which art in Heaven," 
we fulfil the Second Commandment ; for hereby we 
indicate that the God we worship is in Heaven, beyond 
the barriers of gross matter, and that therefore we 
must not harbour any sensuous conception of Him, or 
make any material representation. Thus the invocation 
of the Lord's Prayer embodies the two first Command- 
ments. And the first petition which follows the in- 
vocation is an echo of the third. 

The extreme form of sin forbidden by this Command- 
ment is perjury ; a solemn calling upon God to attest 
that which we well know to be false. But the spirit 
and principle of the precept forbids also all profaneness 
of expression ; and I cannot help pointing to the 
ground assigned for the prohibition, as remarkably 
illustrating the fact adverted to in our last Chapter, 
namely, the serious estimate of words which Almighty 
God, and those who are the exponents of His mind and 
will, seem to form. " For the Lord will not hold him 
guiltless that taketh His Name in vain." The Law- 
giver seems to glance at a different estimate of this 
subject, popular and current among those on whom the 
restriction is laid. It is as if he had said, " Man may 
hold words in no account — may deem them a wind that 
passeth away, and cometh not again. What can be 
the harm, he may ask, of a word spoken against con- 
viction, and with a mental reservation, if the sentiments 
of the heart be right ? We cannot suppose that for so 
slight a thing as a word God will judge us, though we 
could easily conceive that He might do so for neglect 
of His Worship, or any practical disrespect shown to 
His Ordinances." In answer to these reasonings of the 



defined from the Decalogue. 73 

natural heart, God assures us that He will by no means 
hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain. He 
will by no means do so, however man might act ; and 
He will not count the profane word guiltless, that is, 
He will account profaneness of language to be a serious 
offence. 

The current profanenesses of expression, into which 
Christians, good and serious in the main, might be 
entrapped from want of reflection, or in a moment of 
excitement are as follows : 

1. All asseverations which take the form of an oath, 
whether the name of the true God be introduced in them 
or not ; all ejaculations in surprise or excitement, which 
imply an invocation of God. The original design of 
the Commandment was probably to draw a broad line 
of demarcation between the peculiar people of God, 
and those contiguous heathen nations (the Egyptians 
specially) who freely interlarded their discourse with 
the names of their deities, Tsis, Apis, Jupiter, Hercules, 
and the rest. To a certain extent the precept took 
effect ; for the Jews never allowed the name Jehovah 
(meaning the Self-existent One, or He that was, and 
that is, and that is to come) to pass their lips. When 
they came across it in the Old Testament, as they did 
in every page, they substituted another word of lower 
import, not exclusively appropriated to God ; nor was 
it ever lawful to pronounce this sacred Name except 
for the High Priest once a year on the great day of 
Atonement, when he announced forgiveness to the 
people in the name of Jehovah. But while in this 
formal, superstitious manner they observed the letter of 
the Commandment, they — at least in the later period 
of their history — evaded its spirit, and when God 
Incarnate came among them, He found them using ail 



74 An Idle Word 

manner of conversational oaths, swearing by heaven, 
by the earth, by the Temple, by Jerusalem, and so 
forth, in all which forms of speech they recognized no 
guilt. It is against this practice that Our Lord directs 
His precept in the Sermon on the Mount : " But I say 
unto you, Swear not at all ; neither by heaven ; for it is 
God's throne : nor by the earth ; for it is His footstool : 
neither by Jerusalem ; for it is the city of the great 
King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because 
thou canst not make one hair white or black ;" a 
precept which is echoed, almost in the terms in which 
it was issued, by the Apostle James : "But above all 
things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, 
neither by the earth, neither by any other oath ; but let 
your yea be yea, and your nay nay, lest ye fall into 
condemnation." 

It is singular what a hold conversational oaths have 
taken of the minds of men in all ages and countries 
alike ; what a discontent has always been shown with 
the simple affirmation and denial, as not sufficiently 
emphatic ; and how, when (under the influence of 
Christian civilization) a direct appeal to the true God 
has been entirely banished from good society, foolish 
and frivolous exclamations, in which the name is dis- 
guised, or exchanged for that of some heathen Deity, 
have taken its place. The account of this is, that the 
mind is ruffled by some momentary excitement, whether 
of anger or surprise ; that all emotions naturally seek 
a vent ; and that a momentary relief is found in ex- 
pressions of this kind. The practice, like most other 
practices, with great facility grows into a trick ; and 
then is indulged in as a mere flourish, even when the 
mind is perfectly calm. It may be thought, perhaps, 
that it is not easy to see the guilt of such a habit ; and 



defined from the Decalogue. 75 

that when once formed, it is so instinctive as to become 
involuntary. But let it be considered that in the pre- 
sence of an earthly sovereign such expressions would be 
accounted most indecorous, and universally refrained 
from without an effort ; — the history of which propriety 
of demeanour would be, that men naturally lay a re- 
straint upon themselves, when they are under the eye 
of one whom they venerate, and instinctively take care 
that nothing shall escape them, which can be construed 
into disrespect of a great presence. This remark opens 
a glimpse into the true spiritual significance of the 
precept before us; for a consciousness of God's Pre- 
sence steadily maintained would impose a similar re- 
straint, as we shall have occasion presently to notice 
more at large. 

2. I pass from the unduly emphasized asseveration 
or denial to other profanenesses of expression, into 
which Christians might be liable to fall. 

It is a bad habit, and one which we should seek as 
much as possible to banish from our discourse, to quote 
texts of the Holy Scriptures by wa}~ of pointing a jest. 
The effect of this practice is, that when we next come 
across the text in Private Devotion, or it may be in the 
Public Service of the Church, the ludicrous association 
clings to it ; we seek to brush it off, as a person walk- 
ing through a corn-field seeks to brush off a burr which 
clings to his dress, but we fail; and find it perhaps 
impossible to re-invest that passage with the sanctity 
which once it had for us. In the Psalms we find it 
written, " Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all 
Thy Name ;" as if out of the whole circle of His attri- 
butes and properties there was none which God so 
especially delights to honour as His Word. And cer- 
tainly, if there be any truth in the representation of 



76 An Idle Word 

Our Lord's life as given by His biographers the Evan- 
gelists, there is no one thing which He so continually 
honoured in His practice as the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament. The prophetical outline which those Scrip- 
tures had traced out for Him as Messiah seems to 
have been one of the uppermost thoughts in His mind ; 
and as He was fulfilling His great destiny, He was 
continually reverting to this outline with such expres- 
sions as, " The Scriptures must be fulfilled." Now if 
God holds His Word in such especial honour, and if 
the Incarnate Son, the Image in human flesh of the 
Invisible God, and our perfect Example, shows such a 
deference to Scripture's slightest intimations, it surely 
cannot be in conformity with the mind of God and 
Christ that we should desecrate what is especially 
venerable by light and jocular applications of it. And 
possibly this practice of quoting Scripture in a con- 
nexion which desecrates it may have gradually wrought 
more evil upon our own minds than we are fully aware. 
One patent error of the day is a light esteem of Holy 
Scripture ; a contemptuous repudiation of certain parts 
of it, as altogether unworthy of credit from their ap- 
pearing to conflict with scientific discoveries and the 
moral sense of man ; and generally a bringing down of 
the Sacred Books to the level of common writings, 
upon which Criticism is to sit in judgment, eliminating 
whatever does not satisfy her, and reconstructing the 
lively Oracles in a manner suitable to the progress and 
enlightenment of the age ! How much of this awful 
presumption, which is now making such encroachments 
upon Sacred Literature, may be due to small habits of 
irreverence, gaining ground stealthily and insidiously 
on the mind, it is impossible to say. But this we may 
confidently assert, that for all light esteem of Holy 



defined from the Decalogue. 77 

Scripture, as of every thing else connected with the 
Name of God, a judgment will in due time overtake 
us ; and therefore we cannot be too cautious or scru- 
pulous as to our own practice in this particular. No 
doubt the gaiety and mirthfulness of discourse is in 
itself a good thing, because in this way it is that Con- 
versation is made to fulfil one of its ends, which is the 
relief of the mind under the many burdens of life ; but 
too dear a price is paid for this gaiety, if it is produced 
by any saying, however sparkling, which compromises 
or lowers our reverence for God's Word. To refrain 
from such a saying will no doubt often be a trial to 
those in whose characters there is a humorous and 
imaginative element ; but let them say, after honestly 
trying it, whether such self-restraint, out of reverence 
to the Awful Name of God, does not bring with it its 
own reward, — whether it is not at all events compen- 
sated by the greater facility and readiness with which 
the mind is brought into a devotional frame, and fenced 
from distractions in prayer. 

3. But perhaps there are profanenesses of expression 
current among us, when and where such things are 
least looked for, — when and where in a rapid survey 
they would be overlooked. Our times are controversial 
times, when a great public interest is felt in subjects 
of religion. We do not believe that the depth of this 
interest is at all proportionate to its universality. 
What men have much on their tongues has seldom a 
very firm root in their minds ; — and it is just this 
combination of fluency of talk with shallowness of feel- 
ing (so characteristic of our day) which constitutes 
our danger. Theological discussions are so common 
now-a-days, that the words which denote the highest 
verities of Religion have become mere counters, passed 



78 An Idle Word 

about from hand to hand with a fatal facility. As coins 
which are in continual currency lose the Sovereign's 
image originally impressed upon them, so that we can 
no longer tell to what reign they belong ; so these 
religious words, being bandied about continually, lose 
all the freshness of their original signification, and con- 
vey hardly more of idea to the minds of the persons 
using them than an algebraical formula. Men will 
talk about the Inspiration of Scripture, Baptismal Re- 
generation, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Powers of 
the Christian Ministry, the Miracles of Our Lord, His 
Divine Sonship, the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, 
without ever pausing for a moment to consider the 
deep reality of the things on which their conversation 
is turning, — without the thought crossing them, that 
their tongue is making its sallies in the region of the 
supernatural. Who ever came away from an ordinary 
controversial discussion, feeling that he was the better 
for it, or with an impression of the solemnity of Divine 
things abiding on his spirit ? Who ever came away 
without feeling that the dignity of the subject had 
been somewhat impaired by the rude friction against 
his neighbour's views which his own views had sus- 
tained ? And what is the reason of this result ? The 
reason is that, in the warmth of the discussion, both 
parties have forgotten the reality of the things which 
were upon their lips ; both have in a measure (though 
quite unconsciously, and probably with no worse motive 
than that of mutual improvement) " taken the Name 
of the Lord their God in vain." To talk suitably and 
profitably about Divine things is no such easy matter 
as might be supposed. It demands a certain state of 
heart which is not by ordinary Christians realized, 
except in happy moments. It demands recognition of 



defined from the Decalogue. 79 

God's Presence, of the mysteriousness of His Nature, 
and of all truths concerning Him, and of the limita- 
tions imposed upon the human understanding. The 
mind must be in a worshipping rather than a specula- 
tive frame. For Divine Truth is most certainly re- 
ceived, not with the understanding, but with the heart ; 
and therefore he who allows himself to make an intel- 
lectual game of the pursuit of it, as if it could be won 
by mere dialectical fencing, approaches it at the wrong 
end, and misses altogether of its moral effect. 

It is recorded of Sir Isaac Newton, and a similar 
anecdote is told of Boyle, that he never named God in 
conversation without a visible pause or stop, and that, 
if he were covered at the time, he commonly also raised 
his hat from his head. Oh ! how much it is to be de- 
sired in these days of Religious Conferences and Church 
Congresses, when fluent mention of God and Divine 
things in certain circles is so much in vogue, that men 
would cultivate the same spirit which expressed itself 
by these outward visible signs ! How much it is to be 
desired, even if the only point to be secured were the 
edification of man ! For a controversial discussion, 
conducted with a seriousness suitable to the subjects 
on which it turns, could not be an acrimonious dis- 
cussion. A heart solemnized by the thought of God's 
Presence is in a calm state, —is in communion with 
the Fountain of Truth and Love, and cannot easily 
fulminate an anathema, or even provoke a difference of 
opinion. But how much more desirable does such a 
state of mind appear, when we remember that not only 
the danger of dissension with man has to be guarded 
against, but that also of offence to the Majesty of 
Heaven. Sins against Society are light as compared 
with those against God, and are to a certain ex- 



80 An Idle Word 

tent remediable by Society itself, according to that 
profound word of the old priest ; " If one man sin 
against another, . the judge shall judge him; but if 
a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for 
him?" 

4. We have spoken of Reverence in handling Divine 
Truth ; but there is another sentiment, distinct from, 
and yet intimately blended with Reverence, with which 
it should be handled, — I mean that sentiment of fer- 
vour, of love, and delight, to which the name of unction 
is usually given. Surely it is doing a great wrong to 
the greatest of all themes, if we speak of God in a dry, 
cold, hard manner, without any feeling of the sur- 
passing beauty, amiability, and attractiveness of His 
Character. A Being whose heart is a Fountain of 
pity and of sympathy with His meanest creatures, and 
whose tenderness for His rational creatures is so un- 
speakably great, that, sooner than they should perish, 
He consented to the Sacrifice of His Son ; a Being 
who, in His inexhaustible bounty, yearns and longs to 
communicate His favours far and wide, — who so yearns 
after union with man in particular, that to effect this 
union, He sent His Son to take our Nature upon Him, 
and His Spirit to make us partakers of His Divine 
Nature, — a Father of lights, from whom proceeds every 
scintillation of wisdom and truth which has ever been 
struck out, and a God of Love in whom every pure and 
benevolent affection centres, — such a One should not 
be named except in a loving and fervent spirit, with the 
feeling that, if we had the tongues of angels to exalt 
Him with, we could never adequately tell forth His 
praise. Such an infinitely good, wise, and tender 
Father one would wish never to think of without a 
drawing of the heart towards Him, an_l therefore never 



defined from the Decalogue. 81 

to speak of except in terms which might commend Him 
to the listeners. It is a high attainment to speak of 
God thus in familiar discourse, but not beyond the 
reach of any man who will set about it in the right 
way. It is not to be done by unnatural straining after 
a pious sentiment, and injecting it into the ear of a 
casual listener. The speech which ministers grace to 
the hearers is never forced, but flows naturally from 
the exuberance of a heart full charged with its subject ; 
it is water from a fountain, not water forced up by 
machinery. Hold much and fervent communion with 
God ; and let this communion consist not so much in 
direct prayer, as in meditation on His glorious and 
lovely attributes, as they are fully revealed to us in the 
Gospel. This meditation, if persisted in, will gradually 
beget what I shall call a gravitation of the mind to- 
wards God, a thrill of joy when any new wonder in His 
works or His Word is revealed to us, and of delight 
when He is honoured and glorified. And this state of 
mind will transpire occasionally — with some oftener, 
with others more rarely, according to the greater or less 
unreserve of the character, — in simple but fervent words 
spoken to those around us, which coming from the 
heart of the speaker, and having a savour of heavenly 
affections, which commends them, are very likely to go 
to the heart of the listener. Thus shall we not only 
refrain from taking the Name of the Lord our God in 
vain, but shall do something towards the fulfilment of 
the precept on its positive side, by " hallowing the 
Name " of our Father which is in Heaven. 

5. And now, in conclusion, we must exhibit this 
positive side of the precept a little more fully. In order 
to which it will be necessary to observe the connexion 
which subsists between the commandments of the first 

I. W. F 



82 An Idle Word 

Table. We know that they are all summed up in the 
one precept of " loving the Lord our God with all our 
heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, 
and with all our strength." Now this devoted love of 
God must necessarily involve the following obliga- 
tions : — 

Firstly. An obligation to worship Him only, to the 
exclusion of pleasure, money, distinction, or any other 
object to which men give their hearts. This is the 
obligation prescribed by the First Commandment, 

Secondly. An obligation to worship Him in spirit 
and in truth, not leaning upon material representations, 
or impressions derived from the senses. This is the 
obligation prescribed by the Second Commandment. 

Thirdly. An obligation to worship Him, in a certain 
sense, unceasingly, by continually realizing His Pre- 
sence, and gravitating towards Him in our inmost souls. 
This is the obligation prescribed by the Third Com- 
mandment. 

And fourthly . An obligation to devote a certain por- 
tion of our time to direct acts of worship. This last 
precept is the antidote and corrective of an error which 
possibly might be insinuated by the Third. For it 
might be asked : " If the mind is never allowed to lose 
the consciousness of God's Presence, is not this sufficient 
homage, without any distinct acts of worship?" The 
Fourth Commandment answers this question in the 
negative, affirming the principle that God has a claim 
upon our time, and that this claim must be acknow- 
ledged by surrendering a certain portion of it to Wor- 
ship, Public and Private. — But to return to the Third 
Commandment. 

I am not denying that forcible restraints upon the 
tongue are good, or that they are necessary as steps by 



defined from the Decalogue. 83 

which we may mount up to the spiritual fulfilment of 
this precept. But I do say that the precept, under- 
stood in its length and breadth, involves something 
far beyond these restraints. It cannot be thoroughly 
fulfilled without an habitual consciousness of God's 
Presence, and intimate nearness to each one of us. 
" Thy Name also is so nigh." " I am always by 
Thee." Let this consciousness preside in the soul ; 
and an irreverent word becomes at once an impossi- 
bility. We have already seen that it is only when 
a man is off his guard, and does not care for his 
company, that such words escape him. If he were 
in a royal presence, nay, even if he were in the 
presence of a child or a woman, or in short, of any 
one to whom respect is felt to be due, he would, almost 
without an effort, refrain from profane language. Then 
if he can bring himself to the remembrance that God's 
Eye is always upon him, that this Supreme Object of 
reverence and love hears every word he says, and re- 
gisters every idle word, this thought will operate as no 
mere rule could do, to secure the fulfilment of the pre- 
cept. Seek, then, this consciousness of God's Presence. 
Say often in thine heart, " Thou God seest me ;" " Have 
I also here looked after Him that seeth me?" The 
practice of pausing momentarily in business or re- 
creation, to realize God's Presence, is one of the rudi- 
mentary lessons in the Primer of Eeligion, which 
teaches us to walk by faith and not by sight. Be 
thoroughly rooted and grounded in this lesson. Make 
it the maxim of your spiritual life. And you shall 
soon learn to live more nearly as you pray, when you 
pray, as you do daily, that the " Name of our Father 
who is in Heaven may be hallowed." 

f 2 



CHAPTEE VI. 

WHAT IS AS" IDLE WOED ? 

" <&btxy Me fioortr tfjat men sfjall speak, tfjeg sJ)aII gifcie 
account thereof in tfje tiap of judgment." — Matt. xii. 36. 

The sin of idle words is censured by Our Lord in the 
most awful terms. It behoves us, therefore, to ascer- 
tain exactly what is meant by idle words, — lest we 
should add any thing to, or diminish any thing from, 
His holy commandment. 

Nor let any one imagine that such minute investiga- 
tions of the language of Holy Scripture as we now 
propose, are wanting in interest. Holy Scripture is 
the expression of the mind of the Spirit. He, there- 
fore, who sifts a Greek or Hebrew phrase occurring in 
the Old or New Testament, with the view of ascertain- 
ing its fine shades of significance, is investigating the 
sublimest of all subjects — he is exploring, as far as man 
may explore, the thoughts of Almighty God. 
" Every idle word." 

Our first rule, in seeking to understand a passage of 
Scripture, must always be to review it in connexion 
with its context. What then is the context of these 
words of Our Lord ? 

The discourse of which the words in question form a 
part, had its rise in the circumstance of the Pharisees 



What is an Idle Word ? 85 

attributing Our Lord's miracles (even those of them, 
whose character presented most difficulty to such an 
explanation) to Satanic agency. He had cast out of a 
man a blind and dumb devil, so that the blind and 
dumb both spake and saw. The people were struck 
with amazement and conviction. They said, " Is not 
this the Son of David?" 

But the Pharisees resisted this natural and obvious 
conclusion, by suggesting another account of the 
phenomenon. They said, " This fellow doth not cast 
out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." 

Thereupon follows the discourse, which makes men- 
tion of a certain unpardonable sin, called blasphemy 
against the Holy Grhost (17 tov Uvev/xaTos ^SA-ao-^/xta) , 
and embraces also the warning against idle words con- 
tained in our text. 

Now at first sight, it is natural to suppose that by 
idle words are meant such as the Pharisees had just 
vented — words of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. 
And it is not difficult to perceive what kind of words 
those were. The Pharisees, like the multitude, were 
internally convinced of the Messiahship of Jesus by 
the miracle which they had witnessed. But it would 
have been inconvenient to them to have acknowledged 
His claims. By doing so, they would have to retract 
their whole previous career — to place themselves (after 
the fashion of Mary) at His feet, as His disciples. 
This would have humbled the pride of those eccle- 
siastical rulers, and such an humiliation they could not 
brook. So, without honestly believing their own ex- 
planation, they attributed the cure of the blind and 
dumb man to the agency of Satan. It was a super- 
natural cure — that they admitted — but there are, said 
they, supernatural evil agencies as well as supernatural 



86 What is an Idle Word ? 

good ones, — and this particular miracle is due to the 
first of these causes. It might have occurred to them 
(probably it did occur to them in the deep of their 
hearts), that this was a flimsy and transparently false 
explanation — that, on no recognized principle of craft 
or policy, could the Devil cast out his own agents. 

Yes, such an account would not serve the turn ; — it 
was a dishonest shuffle, and they knew it to be so, to 
avoid making a confession which was irresistibly forced 
upon their minds, but which would have involved them 
in consequences from which their pride and jealousy 
shrunk. 

And then came in the corrupt special pleading, so 
natural to the human mind under such circumstances, 
— 'H yXwcrcr' Oyaco/xo^', rj §€ cf>prjv dvco/xoros. " After all, 
though I am giving an explanation which I do not 
believe — with which I am not satisfied myself — which 
finds no response whatever in my convictions, — yet 
these are but words, the breath of the lips, lightly 
uttered and soon forgotten — my mind recognizes the 
truth, though I cannot bring my tongue to confess it." 

The eye of Him, who knew what was in man, de- 
tected this reasoning at the bottom of their hearts : 
and down came the lightning of His censure to crush 
and blast a fallacy so dangerous. " Whosoever speaketh 
a word against the Son of Man," (without violating 
internal convictions, — like Paul before his conversion, 
who spake many things against the Son of Man, but 
spake them ignorantly in unbelief,) " it shall be for- 
given him — but whosoever speaketh against the Holy 
Ghost," (violates those internal convictions of Truth, 
which are wrought in the mind by the Holy Spirit,) 
" it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come." As if the Lord had 



What is an Idle Word ? 87 

said : " Your Language is not, as you vainly imagine, 
a separate and separable thing from your Reason : it 
has a deep and living connexion with your state of 
mind. Language and Eeason have their fibres twined 
up together, — so that a corrupt Language argues a 
corrupt Reason." 

And then follows our passage, introduced by the 
formula But I say unto you ; — " Every idle word 
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof 
in the day of judgment." 

Now is the idle word to be explained simply and 
solely by the blasphemy preceding ? If so, the warn- 
ing, — though still an awful one, — will scarcely possess 
a general applicability : for the number of those is few, 
whose circumstances resemble the circumstances of the 
Pharisees. The nearest approach to the same sin now- 
a-days, would be the case of an Indian Brahmin, 
mentally convinced of the truth of Christianity, but 
inventing arguments to explain it away from the fear 
of losing caste. Similar cases would rarely occur in 
countries professing Christianity, — though even here 
men might sin, after a measure, on much the same 
principle. 

But we think there are reasons for giving to these 
solemn words a far more extended applicability. 

First, they are introduced by a formula, which will 
be found, I think, to indicate a transition from a more 
limited to a more extended application, the word 
translated " but " having the force of moreover, — ■ 
furthermore. Thus in the Sermon on the Mount 
many times : 

" Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of 
old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt 
perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto 



88 What is an Idle Word ? 

YOU (eyo) Se Ae'yoo vfilv), Swear not AT ALL." In other 
words, I make the precept of the Law more extensively 
applicable. 

Again : " Ye have heard that it has been said by 
them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery : 
EUT I SAT UJ5TTO YOU " (eyw Se Aeyw vfxlv) — the Law 
truly interpreted imposes a far wider restraint than 
this, — " Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after 
her hath committed adultery with her already in his 
heart." 

Again ; in commendation of the centurion of Caper- 
naum, it is said : " Verily I say unto you, I have 
not found so great faith, no not in Israel : and I say 
unto YOU (Aeyo> Sc v/uv), that many shall come from 
the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, 
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." 
Observe, many shall come — I limit not my speech 
to this centurion — I assert it as an universally appli- 
cable truth, that many, whom ye look down upon as 
dogs and sinners of the Gentiles, shall be admitted 
to a glorious and intimate communion with the first 
founders of your race. 

And again ; " Have ye not read in the Law, how 
that on the sabbath days the priests in the Temple 
profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?" (their pro- 
fanation of the Sabbath is excused by the fact that it is 
committed in the course of their attendance on the 
Temple. My disciples therefore, supposing they were 
attending on the Temple, might be excused for some 
profanations of the Sabbath.) " But I say unto 
you" (Aeyoo Se vjjuv), "that in this place is One 
greater than the Temple." (My disciples are pluck- 
ing the ears of corn, in course of their attendance 
upon Me : how much more does that excuse the act.) 



What is an Idle Word? 89 

Thus we perceive that the phrase in question intro- 
duces a transition to a stronger, more emphatic, or 
more general assertion. 

But the same conclusion will follow from examining 
the word rendered " idle " (dpyos). 

According to its derivation, this word means not 
working — (a-lpyov) . 

If we refer to other places in which it occurs, we 
shall find that it is used of the labourers, whom the 
lord of the vineyard saw standing idle (apyoX) in 
the market-place. Here it must mean simply un- 
occupied, disengaged. Again, St. Paul employs it 
to denote that hanging about upon life, which is so 
opposed to Christian earnestness in work, and which 
goes together with gossip and curiosity about other 
people's affairs. Advocating the second marriage of 
widows, he says that, if unmarried, " they learn to be 
idle " (dpycu), " Wandering about from house to house ; 
and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, 
speaking things which they ought not." (I quote 
contexts, because I wish to arrive at a well-defined, 
nicely-chiselled apprehension of the Scriptural meaning 
of the word.) Then again a verse from Epimenides is 
quoted in the Epistle to Titus, in which the Cretans 
are said to be "slow bellies" (yaorepes dpyai). The 
substantive would probably indicate their gluttony ; 
the adjective their want of exertion, that is, their 
indolence. Finally, St. Peter, in his second Epistle, 
couples the word with aKapiros, unfruitful. Christians 
who exhibit Christian graces in abundance, are said to 
be, ovk apyol ovSl aKap7roc, " neither barren nor unfruit- 
ful." 'Apyos then is a term which might be applied 
to unproductive ground — to that soil which, though 
drinking "in the rain that cometh oft upon it, 



90 Wliat is an Idle Word? 

bringeth not forth herbs meet for them by whom it 
is dressed." Hence, of the barren fig-tree it is said — 
Ivari kou rrjv yrjv Karapyet ; " Why also cumbereth it the 
ground ? " Why, besides being unfruitful itself, doth 
it drain away the fatness of the soil, which might go 
to feed a fruit-bearing tree, and so render the ground 
inoperative, unproductive, unfruitful ? 

Now the words of the Pharisees were not simply 
useless, unfruitful, unprofitable words ; — but far worse. 
They were false words — they counteracted conviction 
— their fault was not that of omission — they were 
positively bad, mischievous, and wicked words. They 
were a he in the teeth of conviction, and they were 
calculated to do harm, to mislead the ignorant people 
who looked up to their authority. Hence we infer 
that, when Our Lord condemns idle words, He is going 
a step beyond that sin of blasphemy upon which His 
censure had at the outset of the discourse so heavily 
fallen — and that our text, rendered so as to exhibit the 
emphatic transition, would run thus — " Nay, I even 
say unto you, that every idle word" (not merely every 
false and blasphemous, but " every idle word) that men 
shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day 
of judgment." 

Nor is there any thing which need surprise us, in 
this strictness of the Christian Law on the subject of 
words. It is strictly in accordance with the general 
tenour of Evangelical Precept. We are often instructed 
that that precept cannot be satisfied by innocuousness 
— that we are required not merely to abstain from 
harm, but to do positive good. Thus it is in the 
Parables of the Talents and the Pounds. The servant 
who hid his talent in a napkin, who did not give it to 
the exchangers — who did not put it out to interest 



What is an Idle Word ? 91 

— is called a wicked servant. But his wickedness 
was no wickedness after the world's estimate. It 
consisted simply in slothfulness : — had harmlessness 
been the criterion of worth, the servant, being perfectly 
harmless, would have passed without censure. But 
God gives us talents for an end. The abilities, 
resources, influence, opportunities of improvement, 
which He bestows, are designed to further an object. 
And if they do not further that object, if they are 
idle, fruitless, unprofitable, — if they fulfil not their 
function, and bring no revenue to the good of man, 
and the glory of God, — condemnation ensues as surely 
and as sternly as if they had been misemployed. 
Indeed, not to employ a talent which was designed 
for employment — this is to misemploy it. 

May God eradicate out of the hearts of all of us that 
worldly, false, and mischievous notion, — that we may 
neglect the opportunities afforded us, waste our- time, 
and leave our talents uncultivated, and yet be accounted 
in the sight of God to have lived upon the whole a pure 
life. This would be very well, if we were to be judged 
at the Last Day by the 'World, — by the society in 
which we have moved. The world does account harm- 
lessness for goodness. If a man has done no harm, the 
world is content with him, the requirements of society 
are satisfied. But we are to be judged by One, who 
has not the smallest regard to the verdict of society, or 
the estimate of man. We are to stand before the tri- 
bunal of the Lord Jesus Christ,- — and there to render to 
Him an account how we have observed His Law. The 
Word that He hath spoken, the same shall judge us in 
the last day. We have that Word in our hands — it is 
sounded in our ears continually. Does He in that 
Word ever lead us to expect — does He ever give us the 



92 What is an Idle Word ? 

slightest intimation — that He will be satisfied with an 
amiable harmlessness ? Verily, I trow not. Every 
thing which He says on the subject is in the teeth of 
this notion. He proclaims the principle of His dealing 
with us to be this — that wherever He has bestowed a 
talent, He expects a revenue from it — He expects that 
we shall put it out to interest, and bring this interest 
into His treasury. 

Apply now this principle to words. Is not the gift 
of words a talent ? Is there any talent so wonderful 
as words, — which are the living produce of the Reason ? 
And are not words a talent adapted to secure the 
highest of all ends ? May we not bless God therewith ? 
May we not preach the Gospel, and communicate whole- 
some instruction therewith ? May we not edify human 
souls therewith ? May we not carry on discourse of 
wisdom therewith ? May we not therewith refresh and 
relax the mind by discourse of wit, which is nearly 
allied to wisdom ? May we not lighten another man's 
burden therewith, and lift up the head that droops 
therewith, and present to the mind pictures of truth 
and beauty therewith, and drop suggestions therewith, 
which shall be the seeds of great thoughts and of lofty 
impulses ? And if the talent of words may be made 
thus largely prolific, it was no doubt designed to minister 
to these ends. The blessing of God, the edification and 
rational amusement of man, are its final causes, the 
objects which it was designed to subserve. 

Shall I be surprised, then, if, when I stand before 
the Judgment Seat, an account is required of me how I 
have used this talent — if I am asked whether I have 
blessed God, have instructed or entertained man, have 
spoken a word in due season to the weary, have thrown 
out good suggestions, have advocated holy objects there- 



(*■ I II J. IIBJ.H. , L 1 



What is an Idle Word? 93 

with — and if upon every word which has not conduced 
to any of these purposes (then brought to my memory 
with an instantaneousness more than electric) should 
be pronounced by the Son of Man the censure idle ? 
In short, is there any thing more than the intimation, 
that we are expected diligently to improve all our 
talents, in the solemn words of our passage ; " Nay, I 
even say unto you that every idle word that men shall 
speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of 
judgment ?" 

In the next Chapters we will consider more in detail 
the final causes of the talent of words : for unless those 
final causes are well defined in our minds, we shall not 
be able to apprehend the subject in detail, however much 
possessed of a clear general notion of its meaning. 

But, before closing our present Chapter, let us reflect 
that we have ascertained this clear general notion. It is 
a solemn thing — this ascertaining of Our Lord's mean- 
ing in a matter bearing so immediately upon our daily 
practice. So long as the meaning is a little cloudy, 
and wrapped up in doubt and difficulty, we might think 
perhaps that if we do not fully carry out the precept, 
it is because we do not entirely understand it. But I 
am afraid that the meaning is too clear in this instance, 
for the precept to be thus evaded. 

What the passage condemns is useless words, words 
conducive neither to instruction nor to innocent enter- 
tainment — words having no salt of wit or wisdom in 
them — flat, stale, dull, and unprofitable — thrown out 
to while away the time, to fill up a spare five minutes, 
— words that are not consecrated by any seriousness of 
purpose whatever. 

Now that we understand clearly what is forbidden, 
we must gird ourselves earnestly to the observance of 



94 What is an Idle Word? 

the restriction. Remember upon Whose authority the 
restriction rests. Remember it is the Lord Jesus who 
speaks. This leaves no room for evasion. The com- 
mand may be hard, may be difficult of execution ; but 
impossible it is not, or He would not have commanded 
it — and difficult though it be, He gives grace, if we 
seek it, more than commensurate to the difficulty. 

Well, then, I see plainly that a new duty has been 
brought home to my conscience, and that I must begin 
to-morrow clearing away out of my talk every weed and 
useless growth — every thing vapid, useless, aimless, idle. 

Said I every weed and useless growth ? And are there 
not in the mouths of some (despite all the refinement 
of modern society) words positively evil and noxious ? 
Do not many use the tongue in swearing, which should 
be employed in blessing God ? Do not many employ 
that faculty which was given for the purpose of edifica- 
tion, in corrupting others by means of words, and in 
spreading round them a moral pestilence ? The sen- 
tence against idle words is awful enough. But for 
him, who taints the soul of another by communicating 
to him the venom of a foul imagination, for him, and 
such as him, there remains a censure, which seems to 
exhaust the righteous indignation of Him Who is 
Love : — " Woe unto that man by whom the offence 
cometh : it were better eor him that a millstone 

WERE HANGED ABOUT HIS NECK, AND HE CAST INTO THE 
SEA, THAN THAT HE SHOULD OEEEND ONE OE THESE 
LITTLE ONES." 



CHAPTER VII. 

WOEDS OF BUSINESS AND INNOCENT EECEEATION 
NOT IDLE. 

" €torg Me toortf."— Matt. xii. 36. 

We are at present engaged in the minute examination 
of the solemn censure passed by Our Lord upon idle 
words. 

I suppose my readers to be deeply impressed with 
the necessity of following out the Lord's will, when it 
is ascertained. I suppose them willing and desirous to 
observe such restraints as He lays upon them. I sup- 
pose the tone of their mind in regard to His precepts to 
be justly expressed by the words of the Blessed Virgin 
to the servants at the marriage festival, — " Whatsoever 
He saith unto you, do it." Our question on the pre- 
sent occasion is, what He does say. 

In prosecuting this inquiry, we have already seen 
that the word rendered "idle" is very appropriately so 
rendered — that it is susceptible of application to any 
person or thing which does not perform its proper busi- 
ness, and so fulfil the proper end of its existence. 

Words then are idle, which do not fulfil the proper . 
end of the existence, of words. 

We may remark, in general, that what constitutes 
the excellence or virtue of any thing, is, that it should 



96 Words of Business and 

fulfil its proper end. A few simple instances will suffice 
to make this clear. The end of an orchard — the busi- 
ness which we expect it to fulfil — is to bring forth fruit. 
The end of a flower-garden is to gratify the senses of 
sight and smell. The end of a watch is to keep the 
time truly. The end of memory is to present us with 
a faithful picture of the past. The end of an electric 
telegraph is to convey news with rapidity. If the 
orchard brings forth a meagre crop, — if the garden 
presents a poor and ill-arranged assortment of colours, 
— if the watch is ever losing or gaining, — if the memory 
is ever letting points of importance drop, — if the tele- 
graph is so ill-worked, or so fractured, that the instan- 
taneous conveyance of intelligence is impeded, — we call 
it, as the case may be, a bad orchard, or a bad garden, 
or a bad watch, or a bad memory, or a bad telegraph, 
— implying thereby that we regard that thing as good, 
which fulfils its proper business or function. 

What then is the proper function of words, — the end 
for which they were given, — by fulfilling which they 
become good, and escape the censure of being idle 
words ? 

The first and perhaps (by comparison) the lowest 
end of words, is to carry on the business of life. A 
moment's thought will show us, that the most ordinary 
and most essential transactions cannot be carried on 
without words. Life would be at a standstill without 
them. Think how impossible it would be to carry out 
any common project or enterprise, if those who took it 
in hand were suddenly struck dumb. Remember how 
impossible it proved to continue the building of the 
Tower of Babel, when by the confusion of tongues the 
builders were precluded from the use of a common lan- 
guage. And without some amount of combination, 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 97 

mutual assistance, and co-operation, scarcely any thing 
could be effected. Men are so completely one body, that 
they have need of one another's services many times in 
each day. The service of course often consists of some 
common piece of information, which one man is master 
of, and another not. Still it is a service ; it involves 
the principle of mutual assistance, and in the absence 
of words it could not be rendered. You walk through 
the fields, and a peasant, who has no clock but that of 
the heavens to govern his arrangements by, asks you 
'the time. You walk through the city, and an officer 
of justice, in pursuit of a criminal, asks you whether 
you have seen a person of such a description as you 
came along on such a road. You want a book of refer- 
ence for immediate use ; long before you can procure it 
from a bookseller, the occasion for it will have passed 
away : but you may have it by speaking a few words ; 
for your neighbour possesses it, and will lend it to you, 
if you ask him. Now conceive in all these cases what a 
serious impediment to the business of life it would be, 
if the person in want of assistance, or the person ques- 
tioned for information, were deprived of the use of 
Language, or were sullenly to refuse to speak. Carry 
out this hypothesis to its ultimate results, and you 
would deal a death-blow at mutual supply and demand, 
at commerce and exchange, at all the arts of civilized 
life, — nay, you would destroy the whole system of the 
republic (by which word I now mean, not any particular 
form of government, but the system of society and of 
life in common), and would reduce man to the level of a 
solitary creature, — to the condition of the hermit, who 
plucks berries for his food, dips his potsherd in the 
stream, wattles his own hut, and patches up a garment 
of leaves, like our first parents after their fall. 
i. w. a 



98 Words of Business and 

The sum and substance of what has been said is this. 
Men are, by Divine appointment, a community — " one 
body." The mutual dependance of the members of a 
community upon one another, involves some rapid 
means of communication between them. The means 
of communication ordained by God for this purpose is 
Language. Language, therefore, may be not only 
innocently, but coram endably, used in carrying on the 
business of life. Assuredly it is no idle word, if, when 
I want information to guide my arrangements, I ask 
for it, or if, when I am solicited for such information. 
I give it. If such words are to the point — I mean, if 
they are not made the excuse for indulging in gossip, 
and throwing away precious moments — I need not fear 
their confronting me at the Day of Judgment. Pro- 
bably, reader, you think that this is a very needless 
admonition. Nay, but I am anxious to ascertain very 
definitely, by way of guiding our consciences, what 
words are permitted to us and what are forbidden. 
How are we to examine ourselves on the idle words we 
have used, so long as we have but a vague notion of 
what is meant by an idle word ? 

The second end which words should fulfil, and for 
which they were no doubt designed, is to refresh and 
entertain the mind. 

It is a trite saying, but no less true than it is trite, 
that the mind requires refreshment. One strain of 
serious occupation or of earnest thought cannot be 
maintained for any length of time, and an attempt 
made to maintain it, in despite of the constitution of 
our nature, would probably, if persisted in, issue in the 
wreck of our mental powers. The mind, like the body, 
cannot endure a long-continued pressure ; and man, 
therefore, being in need of recreation, (and that, in 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 99 

virtue of his original constitution, without reference to 
the sin he has superinduced upon it,) we should expect 
to find him furnished with some resource, — a resource, 
mark you, in himself, and not in external circum- 
stances, — for mental refreshment. Most wisely, there- 
fore, and most beneficently has it been ordained that 
he shall carry about with him such a resource in the 
tongue, — the instrument of recreation as well as of 
business, of refreshment as well as of instruction. 

Similarly, in his bodily constitution there is a pro- 
vision for the recreation of his physical frame. The 
power of moving the limbs, — of taking exercise of any 
description, — no doubt conduces to the more serious 
ends of carrying on mutual communication, and so of 
forwarding the business of life. But this same exer- 
cise, taken in the open air, under fresh breezes and 
gleams of sunshine, and among the ever-shifting 
sceneries of nature, is also a physical recreation. 
Think of the operative, whose nimble fingers are plying 
all day amidst the whirr of machinery, and giving 
abundant testimony to the wonderful skilfulness with 
which the human hand has been constructed for the 
purpose of the useful arts ; set these same limbs at 
work on a fine summer's evening amid the genial 
sights and sounds of nature, — let him pluck daisies to 
weave a fantastic garland, or toss himself among the 
sweet hay, or simply walk through the fields of clover, 
and watch the sun descend in a blaze of gold, — this is 
the very refreshment which his frame, jaded by the 
protracted labours of the day, demands, and which we 
of the upper classes, whose luxuries are purchased by 
his toils, are bound to see that he has at least the 
opportunity of enjoying. 

Now analogous to exercise for recreation's sake in 
G 2 



100 Words of Business and 

the physical frame of man, is the use of the tongue for 
the entertainment of the mind. The method of mental 
entertainment readiest to hand, — that which nature 
herself furnishes, independently of all extrinsic resources, 
— is by the tongue. " Iron sharpeneth iron : so a man 
sharpeneth the countenance of his friend," — a very 
expressive text, and one which speaks for itself. When 
the countenance is dull and blunted by the hard and 
dry business of life, what is it which communicates to 
it the spark of animation, which makes it dawn once 
again with intelligence, which brings out that charac- 
teristic gleam, which probably lies hidden in every 
countenance, which it is the artist's skill to catch and 
to perpetuate upon canvas, but which no solar picture 
(taken, as such likenesses are, by machinery, and with- 
out an operation of the artificer's mind) ever did or 
ever will catch ? "A man sharpeneth the countenance 
of his friend." The simple collision of mind with 
mind, not on arduous subjects, or serious business, but 
upon ordinary and lighter topics, — the simple inter- 
change of thoughts without reserve, and the freedom 
and gaiety of common intercourse, — acts as the great- 
est relief to one whose attention and thoughts have 
been kept on the stretch by study or business. The 
excellence of such conversation — that which renders it 
good of its kind, and suitable to the fulfilment of its 
end — is Wit. Do not be surprised at hearing such a 
thing advocated (and I am prepared deliberately to 
advocate it) in an essay, whose purport is religious. If 
there were more of the salt of wit in our ordinary con- 
versation, its general vapid nature would be corrected, 
— it would turn less upon the character, conduct, plans, 
and arrangements of our neighbours, — topics upon 
which perhaps it can never turn with any profit, and 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 101 

upon which it rarely turns without trenching hard upon 
sin. It is to be deplored that there is so little wit 
in the world, not that there is so much ; for in default 
of wit it is, that men seek diversion of the mind, some 
by empty gossip, and some by foul and obscene con- 
versation, which feeds in them the deadly gangrene of 
impure lust. It has been often said that Wit and 
Wisdom are twin sisters. And it is true. They are 
so nearly allied, that one might almost say they are 
the same faculty, operating at its different poles. 
" Wit," says Aristotle, " is the perception of incon- 
gruities." And is not wisdom the perception of har- 
monies ? What is the perception of analogies running 
through all the various departments of nature, — the 
domain of sight, the domain of sound, the domain 
of touch 1 , — but wisdom or philosophy ? What is a 
parable, but the exhibition of a harmony subsisting 
between God's works of Grace on the one hand, and 
His works of Nature or Providence on the other ? Is 
there any wise work in any department of literature, 
art, or science, which is not ultimately founded on the 
apprehension of harmonies, — the discrimination of true 
and real harmonies from those which are false and 
shallow and superficial? Now would not he who 
discerns harmonies most readily, have also the readiest 
discernment of incongruities ? He who has the live- 
liest faculty of comparison, must he not also have the 
liveliest faculty of contrast ? He who is keenly alive 
to congruities, must he not be alive also to incon- 
gruities ? Or, in other words, must not he who has 
in him wisdom, possess wrapped up in that very gift 
the kindred faculty of wit ? 

1 See the Note at the end of the Chapter. 



102 Words of Business and 

And it is pleasing to see in experience, that often- 
times the men of most depth and seriousness of cha- 
racter — the men who in their closets have taken the 
most earnest view of life and have cultivated heavenly 
Wisdom most largely, have also been men of lively 
fancy, sprightly and agreeable repartee — seem to have 
had within them a spring of joy and merriment 
bubbling up, when the obstruction of serious affairs 
was removed, and covering with fertility even the 
leisure hours of their lives. The world's wisest men 
have mingled mirth with earnestness, — they have not 
gone about with starched visage, prim manner, or puri- 
tanical grimace. If they have been deeply enwrapped 
(as the holiest and best men always are enwrapped) in 
the shadows and clouds of life, — they have ever and 
anon walked in its lights, — have not despised those 
gleams of merriment which shoot athwart our path, as 
a relief from the pressure and burden of our work and 
responsibilities. 

Which of us, man or boy, has half the playfulness of 
the poet Cowper ? Which of us can write a letter like 
him, — a letter sparkling with sallies that never wound, 
sallies not elaborated, nor framed of set purpose, but 
thrown off in the natural buoyancy of high spirits, 
thrown off simply, freshly, and gracefully? And 
which of us, man or boy, can even approach him in the 
earnestness of his religious feeling, — which of us views 
sin in colours half so dark as it wore to his eyes, or is 
equally prepared in mind to apprehend that Love of 
God in Christ, which stands out against the black 
mass of human guilt as a rainbow against the thunder- 
cloud ? 

There is, however, one passage of Scripture, which, 
on first sight, seems adverse to what I have said, and 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 103 

which requires explanation, before I quit this branch 
of the subject. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St 
Paul appears to forbid, under the comprehensive term 
"jesting," every species of pleasantry. His words 
(and that portion of them about which no question 
can arise ought to be very awful words to many) are 
these : — " But fornication, and all uncleanness and 
covetousness, let it not be once named among you as 
becometh saints," (not to practise such things does not 
meet the strictness of God's requirements — we are not 
even to mention them,} " neither filthiness nor foolish 
talking," — so far all is clear. That such species of 
conversation should be forbidden, is in accordance with 
all that we should expect from the purity of Christian 
precept. But the Apostle adds, " nor jesting, which 
are not convenient ; but rather giving of thanks." 
Now let me again remind my readers that whatever 
precept the Scripture gives, not only may be carried 
out by prayer and exertion, but must be carried out at 
all hazards, and that to the letter. God, when He has 
laid down a Law, will not indulge us in the smallest 
deviation from it. If in this or any other passage He 
forbids pleasantry, then pleasantry is a sin — a sin 
which like any other sin, grievous or slight, requires all 
the efficacy of Christ's Blood to atone for it, and all 
the Grace of His Spirit to correct and eradicate it 
from our hearts. It is a false and wholly unscriptural 
view, that God lays down unduly strict rules by way 
of securing as large an amount of obedience as can be 
extracted from us, and that the smaller and more 
harmless infringements of those rules will be by Him 
overlooked. No infringement of a Divine rule is harm- 
less — every such infringment is full charged with guilt 
amd misery and eternal ruin. Step out of the paling 



104 Words of Business and 

of the Divine Law at one point, and you place yourself 
out of the shelter of the whole Law: you are then 
beyond the reach of mercy, except through a Mediator. 
" For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet 
offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Let us ascer- 
tain then, clearly, whether God does forbid pleasantry ; 
for, in that case, no laugh of ours must ever ring 
again, no humorous word ever proceed from our lips, 
no smile ever sit upon our countenance. The word 
translated jesting is evTpa7re\ia. According to its de- 
rivation, it properly means "versatility" — aptness in 
turning to another topic, or another resource, when 
one topic or resource is well-nigh exhausted. You see 
that if we regard the word according to its origin and 
etymology, no notion of pleasantry whatever attaches 
to it. Such a notion, however, may subsequently have 
gathered round the word, for all that, — and I believe 
that it did. I have not time to go through the proof 
of my position. But I apprehend that in the former 
words, " filthiness and foolish talking," the Apostle is 
forbidding all coarse and empty conversation, — that it 
then strikes him that something more beyond these has 
to be forbidden — that there is a kind of conversation 
very rife among men of the world, and very common in 
what is termed the most fashionable society, which is 
not outwardly coarse and obscene (and so not " filthi- 
ness "), nor yet foolish in the usual sense of folly, being 
mixed with quick innuendoes and smart repartees (and 
so not exactly "foolish talking"), but in which im- 
proprieties are implied though not expressed, and in 
which the natural liveliness of parts of one who knows 
that Society will not tolerate any thing very gross, 
vents itself in an insinuation, either full of moral 
mischief, or armed with a sting. 



Innocent Recreation not Idle. 105 

" Let there be no coarseness, nor vapid and gossiping 
conversation, — no, nor even the refined, but sinful 
raillery of the man of fashion." Such is, I believe, a 
fair paraphrase of the passage 2 . 

The word, if this be its meaning, gives us the- salu- 
tary warning, that albeit pleasantry itself be no sin, it is 
under certain circumstances very closely allied with sin. 

By way of preserving pure this offspring of the 
heart's merriment, three cautions should be rigidly 
observed. 

First ; from all our pleasantry must be banished any, 
even the remotest, allusion to impurity — which forms 
the staple of much of this world's wit. Pleasantry 
should be the fruit of a childlike playfulness, and of a 
heart buoyant, because it has not the consciousness of 
guile. If you once make it the vehicle of uncleanness, 
you foul it at the spring. 

Secondly ; all such sarcasms as hurt another person, 
wound his feelings, and give him unnecessary pain, are 
absolutely forbidden by the law of Christian Love. 
The flashes of wit should be like those of the summer 
lightning, lambent and innocuous. 

Thirdly ; all such pleasantries as bring any thing 
sacred into ridicule — or, without bringing it actually 
into ridicule, connect with it, in the minds of others, 
ludicrous associations, so that they can never see the 
object or hear the words, without the ludicrous ob- 
servation being presented to them, — are carefully to be 
eschewed. At all times our primary duty, — that which 
is inalienably binding upon us, and from which no plea 

2 On turning to Archbishop Trench's Synonyms of the New 
Testament, I see that he takes this view of the meaning of the 
word in question. To his excellent work I refer the reader who 
wishes to follow up the subject. 



106 Note. 

of entertainment can excuse us, — is to hallow God's 
Name. 

Let us close our present remarks, by the prayer that 
God would restore to us that purity of heart which 
forms the groundwork of a sound and Christian mirth- 
fulness, — that He would enable us so to believe in the 
efficacy of His Son's Blood, as to have our conscience 
sprinkled from all guilt thereby, — that by the operation 
of Grace He would make us in intention stand aloof 
from all evil, — so that the burden of unforgiven and 
cherished sin may no longer make our hearts to stoop ; 
but that joy fulness may enter there to be a perpetual 
guest, and that, whatever we put our hand unto, we 
may rejoice. 



NOTE ON CHAPTER VII., p. 101. 

" What is the perception of analogies running through 
all the various departments of nature, — the domain 
of sight, the domain of sound, the domain of touch, — 
hut Wisdom or Philosophy ?" 

As an example of this perception of analogies, I extract the fol- 
lowing 1 passage from the "Advancement of Learning." The 
Anthor is speaking of those elementary philosophical axioms, 
which he calls " Philosophia Prima :" — 

" Is not the ground, which Machiavel wisely and largely dis- 
courseth concerning governments, that the way to establish and 
preserve them, is to reduce them ad principia, a rule in religion 
and nature, as well as in civil administration ? Was not the Per- 
sian magic a reduction or correspondence of the principles and 
architectures of nature to the rules and policy of governments ? 
Is not the precept of a musician, to fall from a discord or harsh 
accord upon a concord or sweet accord, alike true in affection ? 
Is not the trope of music, to avoid or slide from the close or 



Note. 107 

cadence, common with the trope of rhetoric of deceiving expec- 
tation ? Is not the delight of the quavering upon a stop in music 
the same with the playing of light upon the water ? Are not the 
organs of the senses of one kind with the organs of reflection, the 
eye with a glass, the ear with a cave or strait determined and 
hounded ? Neither are these only similitudes, as men of narrow 
observation may conceive them to be, but the same footsteps of 
nature, treading or printing upon several subjects or matters." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SPEECH THE INSTRUMENT OE PROPHECY AND 
SACRIFICE. 

" Xtt tfje roortr of Christ trineH in pou ricrjlo in all toistrom : 
ttarinng antr atrmonisfjing one another tn psalms antf rjomns 
antf spiritual songs, singing to in) grace in pour rjearts to tfje 
Xortr."— Col. iii. 16. 

" 3|e fjatrj mate us priests."— Re y. i. 6. 

In our last Chapter, we were engaged in inquiring what 
sort of words Our Lord censures, and warns us against, 
under the term. " idle." 

We denned idle words to be such as do not fulfil the 
object or objects for which the faculty of Language is 
given. 

This definition threw us back upon the inquiry : 
" What are the objects or final causes of Language ?" 

And the two objects, to the consideration of which 
our last Chapter was devoted, were — the carrying on 
the necessary business of life, and the entertainment of 
the mind. 

These are two of the ends which the gift of Speech 
was designed to promote, and such words as really 
promote either of these ends cannot be stigmatized as 
idle words. 

But words have higher ends than these ; and what 
those higher ends may be, we now proceed to consider. 



V '^ 



Speech the Instrument of Prophecy , Sfc. 109 

St. Paul exhibits these higher ends in the first 
passage which stands at the head of this Chapter. 
I believe that in our version it is erroneously punc- 
tuated, and that it should run thus ; " Let the word of 
Christ dwell in you richly " — [a general exhortation, 
and one having respect to their state of mind; — the 
Word of Christ was to be stored up in their hearts, as 
water in the treasury of the great deep, and to flow 
forth from their mouths in a twofold current, — first, a 
current towards man, irrigating the moral world with 
fertility, — secondly, a current of thanksgiving and 
praise, which should pour itself into the Bosom of 
Grod] — " Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly ; 
— in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another," 
— (this is the highest use of Speech, as it looks towards 
man) — " in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 
singing thankfully " (Jv ^aptrt sometimes has this 
meaning) "in your hearts to the Lord" — (this is 
the highest use of Speech, as it looks towards God) . 
These two ends, then, may be shortly stated as being 
I. Edification, and II. Praise \ Let us say a word of 
each of them. 

I. Edification. This word need not be confined 
exclusively to Moral or Spiritual Edification. It may 
be made to embrace every communication of knowledge 
from man to man. 

He who by words throws knowledge into the mind 
of another, which did not exist there previously, or 
developes in that mind some idea which was latent in 
it, but not yet brought to the birth, certainly edifies 
by means of Speech. There are other kinds of truth 
besides Scriptural truth, (why should we fear to admit 

1 See the Note at the end of the Chapter. 



110 Speech the Instrument of 

it ?) and lie who communicates to another any kind of 
truth (worthy of the name) is employed in the work of 
Edification. In a certain important sense, too, all 
truth is God's message and God's revelation, though 
not in the same sense in which the Holy Scriptures 
are. God is said to be the Father of lights — observe, 
not of one light, but of all lights. Wherever there 
is light, it is a ray emanating from God. The Scrip- 
tures are the organ by which God reveals — not all 
truth, but — all spiritual truth, — all such truth as 
pertains to Salvation. There are many kinds of truth, 
not at all bearing upon the question of Eternal Salvation. 
And these truths, not affecting our eternal interests, 
God communicates through other instruments, which 
we need not scruple to call organs of revelation, if only 
we understand clearly in what lower sense those words 
are applied. The truths of Natural Philosophy are 
revealed to us by the human Eeason, operating upon 
the Phenomena of Nature. The law of gravitation is 
one of these truths ; it was a great light, when first it 
dawned upon the mind of Newton, and from that mind 
was diffused abroad. And it was a light which, like 
all other lights, came from the Father of lights. It 
was God who gave Newton his reason, and designed 
him (fore- ordained him, if you will) to discover by it 
such laws and principles of Nature, heretofore unknown, 
as Eeason is competent to discover. 

Again, the truths which we learn from experience 
are lights. God sends the experience, and designs us 
to learn by it, and gives us Eeason, to operate upon 
the experience, in order that we may learn. If we 
desire to know a truth of experience, for the guidance 
of our individual lives, we must set our minds and 
memories to work upon what has befallen us, and gain 






Prophecy and Sacrifice. Ill 

the truth by this process. If we desire to know a truth 
of experience, for the guidance of societies, we must 
read History, which is the record of the experience of 
communities, and there find what causes have operated 
to produce the prosperity and decay of states. These 
truths, when we have gained them, are a light ; but 
they are given through the organ of experience, or of 
Reason operating upon experience, not through that of 
Holy Scripture. 

In vain will you inquire of Holy Scripture, what is 
the best form of civil government, or what is the cause 
which retains the Earth within its annual orbit ; — the 
Scripture is not the organ through which God designs 
to reveal these truths to you. 

Again, Instinct is a light, — a scintillation which the 
Father of lights has disparted among the inferior 
creatures. Acting upon it, their lives are preserved, 
and their interests secured. It may be but a glimmer- 
ing, but still it reveals to them all that it was designed 
to reveal. 

There are, then, many forms of truth, according to 
the different processes by which Grod communicates 
it, — and he who conveys truth to another, so long as 
it be of an innocent, and not of a corrupting, character, 
— he who diffuses a scrap of useful knowledge, or 
divulges a piece of curious information, — is contribu- 
ting to the great end of Edification, and so further- 
ing one of the objects for which Language was 
given. 

But, of course, the highest and most blessed form of 
Edification is that by which we communicate to one 
another Religious or Scriptural Truth — by which we 
impart that wisdom which is man's peculiar province, 
(for we are told that " the fear of the Lord, that is 



112 Speech the Instrument of 

wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding,") 
and without which the most abundant resources of 
genius and learning are but gilded dross and a splendid 
folly. 

Now the climax of this form of Edification is called 
a Sermon, — a sermon being a solemn address, made by 
one man to others, on subjects of the highest import, 
such as affect their eternal welfare. It is not indeed 
every man's province or business to preach a sermon. 
But it is every man's province to speak unto edifica- 
tion, and that not simply to the enlightenment of the 
mind, but also to the improvement of the heart. Only 
the man set apart for that function preaches formally 
and in the pulpit, but the man not set apart must 
equally teach and admonish his neighbour " in all 
wisdom." " Ye may all prophesy one by one, that all 
may learn and all may be comforted," says the Apostle. 
This precept has its primary reference no doubt to the 
miraculous gift of Prophecy : still its spirit and prin- 
ciple, like that of every other Scriptural precept, is to 
be carried out now-a-days, and how it can be carried 
out I see not, so long as the Christian laity hold them- 
selves exempted from moral and spiritual admonition, 
and resent such admonition, when it proceeds from any 
one but a clergyman. It is every man's duty, as it 
ought to be esteemed every man's privilege, to say a 
word for God in society, wherever such a word may 
be discreetly and properly introduced — to be faithful 
with his more intimate friends, in representing their 
defects of character and conduct — to be thankful 
himself for receiving such representations — and ever 
to be on the watch, to arrest an opportunity of pro- 
fitable conversation. 

II. We now come to the highest of all the ends for 



Prophecy and Sacrifice. 113 

which the faculty of Speech was given — the Praise of 
God. " In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 
singing thankfully in your hearts to the Lord." " There- 
with," says St. James of the tongue, " therewith bless 
we God, even the Father." "By Him," says the 
Apostle to the Hebrews, " let us offer the sacrifice of 
praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, 
giving thanks to His Name." 

We have seen in the course of these pages that man 
is provided, by his natural constitution, with resources 
in himself for the maintenance of his bodily and mental 
health, and for carrying on the business of life. The 
power of motion in his limbs enables him to take 
exercise — and perhaps the form of exercise which is 
taken by the simple movement of the limbs, without 
any extrinsic adventitious aid, is of all forms the most 
conducive to health. For the recreati'jn of the mind 
he has a resource in the faculty of Speech. And the 
same faculty enables him to carry on the business of 
life, with a speed and facility which no contrivance of 
art can rival. What a clumsy and tardy method of 
communication is that by paper and ink; as compared 
with the speaking face to face ! Nay, even the electric 
telegraph itself, the most marvellous invention of modern 
times, is slow in its conveyance of ideas in comparison 
of the human mouth. So that for the business and 
enjoyment of this life, man is amply furnished in 
himself with all resources — he need not travel out of 
his own nature — he has his instruments ready at hand. 

But man is made for transactions of a higher de- 
scription than any which relate to this earth ; he has 
communications to hold with Heaven, and intercourse 
to carry on with God: he is a " Janus bifrons," — with 
one face he looks towards earth, with another he 

I. W. H 



HJj Speech the Instrument of 

confronts unseen things, and regards the invisible 
God. We should expect then to find him furnished 
with resources for heavenly, as well as for earthly, 
intercourse. And such is indeed the case. "With 
the tongue bless we God." Every one has the 
instrument of a spiritual sacrifice within him. The 
spiritual sacrifice is that of Psalms and Hymns, and 
the instrument wherewith it is offered is the tongue of 
man. 

What a noble sacrifice ! a With what ease, facility, 
and grace, may the instrument fulfil its end ! In a 
song there is, as I have observed before, an element of 
intelligence, and an element of feeling. Not so in a 
piece of instrumental music, or in what is erroneously 
called the song of birds. Those inarticulate sounds, — 
beautifully touching, exquisitely pathetic, as some of 
them are, — express only feeling without intelligence, — 
they are the voice of the soul, and not of the spirit. 
On the other hand, a speech or address has only a 
single element. It is the voice of the Reason : I 
deny not that it may move the feelings, and often 
aims at doing so ; but the body — the substantial part 
— of a speech must always * be its argument (the 
appeals to the affections, which a speaker makes, being 
only subsidiary to his argument), and argument is the 
province of the spirit, not of the soul of man. 

A song combines both — the articulations of Reason 
and the gushing forth of feeling, — and therefore a 
spiritual song, — a song addressed to God, — embraces 
the highest exercise of the highest human powers. 

And let me add, lest I should seem to exclude from 
this grand service of Praise all those whom defect of 
ear or voice precludes from literal singing — that a 
Poem is a Song, and that, therefore, a Psalm or 



r 



~Pro])liecy and Sacrifice. 115 

Hymn, even though not sung, but simply recited, 
is a spiritual song. The Ancients were aware of this ; 
and accordingly with them the poet was identified 
with the minstrel, and the same word "carmen" 
is employed in Latin to denote the effusions of both. 
For indeed either the rhyme and metre of Poetry, or 
its more essential attributes of figure, image, and lofty 
diction, may be justly regarded as the outcoming of 
feeling, and as a substitute for the musical tones of 
the voice. 

Contemplate Redeemed Man, then, — contemplate 
yourself, — as having been constituted the High Priest 
of God. It is of necessity that you should have some- 
thing to offer. And the tongue supplies you with a 
resource for sacrifice. God provides you not with a 
lamb, but with a song, for a burnt -offering. With 
Angels and Archangels, and all the Company of 
Heaven, you are required to pour forth your soul 
in strains of thanksgiving and praise to the Most 
High. 

This is a sacrifice, from the offering of which no one 
is exempt. It is the sacrifice appointed for Redeemed 
Man in his priestly character. For let it ever be 
borne in mind that all Christians — all the redeemed of 
God — are, in a certain most important sense, priests, 
and that upon all of them, as such, devolve priestly 
functions. " He hath made us priests." Nor does 
this doctrine, rightly apprehended, interfere, in the 
smallest degree, with that of a constituted Ministry 
set apart for the fulfilment of certain functions, which 
none may, without awful presumption, invade. Why 
should the two doctrines be more inconsistent under 
the New Covenant than they were under the Old ? It 
is said of the whole Israelitish people, in the most 
H 2 



116 Speech the Instrument of 

distinct and emphatic terms : " Ye shall be unto Me a 
Kingdom of Priests, and an holy nation." All were 
priests ; and as a priest, each male was to present him- 
self before God, with an offering, at the three great 
Festivals. Yet when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram pre- 
sumed upon this sanctity of the entire congregation to 
arrogate to themselves the office of burning incense, the 
Divine displeasure was manifested in a form so peculiar, 
that it has no exact parallel throughout the whole 
compass of Scripture. 

The solution of the apparent inconsistency between 
the priestly functions of the whole congregation, and 
those of the Ministry, I take to be this. The line 
of Aaron under the Old Covenant, and Bishops, 
Priests, and Deacons under the New, are Represen- 
tatives before God of the entire People. Representa- 
tives, — that is the idea. Now it does not follow that 
whatever the representative is authorized to do, that 
the party represented may do. All Englishmen, who 
have a certain stake in the country, may vote at an 
election of a member for the Lower House, and then 
they are in their place, and act constitutionally ; but 
most assuredly they would put themselves out of their 
place, if they were to force a passage into the House of 
Commons, and, on the ground of their having a voice 
in the Government, attempt to make a speech there. 
That is simply arrogating a function which is none of 
theirs. 

This is a homely image ; bat it may help to impress 
the truth upon the reader's mind. We, the Ministry, 
are the Representatives before God of you — who are 
yourselves his Royal Priesthood. You may, — nay, 
you must daily — seek to edify others with your lips 
as the passing occasions of life give you opportunity of 






[Prophecy and Sacrifice. 117 

doing so. You may, — nay, you must daily — present 
the Spiritual Sacrifice of Praise (not only praying to 
God for what you need, but glorifying Him in Psalms 
and Hymns for all you receive, and specially for Christ, 
the Unspeakable Gift). But as it did not follow that 
an Israelite, because he was a member of the Kingdom 
of Priests, might therefore slay a victim at the Taber- 
nacle door, or burn incense before Jehovah, so it does 
not follow that a Christian not ordained, may address 
his fellow- Christians in the Congregation, or offer 
up prayers in their name, or bless them in the Great 
Name of the Triune God ; much less that he may 
break and bless those Elements of Bread and Wine, 
which under the Law correspond to the Sacrifices 
under the Gospel. 

It is well for us, however, to bear in mind, that, 
while the Ministry of the Minister will pass away, 
that of the Christian will endure for ever. As the 
bloody sacrifices, which were the shadows of a coming 
Christ, projected beforehand upon the Church of God, 
have fled away, so also shall the Supper of the Lord, 
which is the commemoration of Christ already come, 
pass away when He returns. The great Ordinance of 
the Gospel has a term fixed for it. We are directed to 
show forth the Lord's death by the elements of Bread 
and Wine till, — and only till, — He come. But even 
then, although the ministry of the Minister will be at 
an end, the ministry of Psalms and Hymns will con- 
tinue, and protract itself throughout Eternity. The 
great and enduring nobility of Praise is this, — that 
it shall abide for ever, that it is the ordinance of the 
Church of God, which has the stamp of perpetuity 
upon it. When there is no void in the heart, no want 
to be supplied, Prayer shall expire. When every soul, 



118 Note. 

save the irremediably lost, lias been both brought to 
Christ, and built up in Qhrist, Preaching shall have no 
further use. When Christ is manifested face to face, 
we shall no longer need to regard Him through the 
dark mirror of Sacraments. Praise and Thanksgiving 
alone shall have a duration equal with the Love of God 
and the dory of Christ — they shall roll the tale of 
that Love, and the declaration of that Glory, along the 
ages of an Eternal Future. 



NOTE ON CHAPTER VI., p. 109. 

" These two ends, then, may be shortly stated as being 
I. Edification, and II. Praise." 

In other words, it is by Speech that man is a Prophet (or 
Preacher) to his brethren, and a Priest (for the offering of spiri- 
tual sacrifice) to God. 

It is very interesting to connect this idea with that set forth 
in a previous Chapter, where we pointed out the heavenly 
analogy of the connexion between Speech and Reason. "We saw 
in that Chapter, that Speech in the Nature of man, is the repre- 
sentation of Christ in the Nature of God, our Lord being called 
The Word. Now- we know that Christ is both Prophet, Priest, 
and King. As a Prophet, He was sent by the Father, to instruct 
us in the Law of Liberty. As a Priest, He negotiates our accept- 
ance on the ground of His Sacrifice, and intercedes for us in the 
Heavenly Temple. As a King, He rules us by His Providence, 
His Word, and His Spirit. 

Similiarly, Speech may be viewed in a threefold aspect. One 
end of it is the Edification of Man. Another is the spiritual 
Sacrifice of Psalms and Hymns, which Speech enables us to offer 
to God. And as discriminating man from the inferior creation, 
Speech may justly be said to be the Royal Faculty. It was in 
the exercise of his sovereignty over the beasts of the field, that 
Adam gave them names. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HINTS FOR THE GUIDANCE OF CONVERSATION. 

"Wfymioxz, mp Mobtfj fcretijun, Izt zbcxy man fa sfiotft to 
f)£ar, sloto to speak."— James i. 19. 

We have now completed our consideration of idle 
words. 

We have arrived at the definition of an idle word, 
by ascertaining what words are not idle. And the 
definition is this : " All such words are idle, as con- 
tribute nothing either to the carrying on of the neces- 
sary business of life, or to innocent amusement, or to 
the lower or higher forms of instruction, or to the 
glory of Almighty God." 

It remains that I should furnish some practical hints 
for agreeable and useful conversation. And of useful 
conversation there are two kinds, corresponding to the 
two forms of instruction — a lower and a higher. We 
may converse on earthly subjects of interest, or on 
divine and spiritual topics. Eeligious conversation 
shall occupy our next Chapter. We will now confine 
ourselves to conversation on subjects (profitable and 
interesting indeed, but) not religious. 

Let us consider, first, what principles Holy Scripture 
lays down for our guidance in this matter. 

The passage which stands at the head of this 



120 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

Chapter, is the chief New Testament passage which 
affirms the principle on which Conversation is to be 
regulated. " Let every man be swift to hear, slow 
to speak." Self-restraint in talking, and readiness 
to receive information, is to be the regulating prin- 
ciple. The spirit of the Old Testament precept on 
this subject, is the same with that of the New: its 
letter is even more solemn. It runs thus : " In the 
multitude of words there wanteth not sin ; but he that 
refraineth his lips is wise." 

It is true that, in the first of these passages, the 
primary reference is in all probability to those words 
by which religious instruction is to be conveyed. For, 
in the immediately preceding context, St. James has 
been speaking of God's having begotten us by the 
word of truth, — that is, by the word of the Gospel, — 
and he then prosecutes the idea, by inculcating re- 
straint in speaking or preaching the Gospel. " Where- 
fore, my beloved brethren " (observe the significance 
of the " wherefore ;" it shows that the precept which 
it introduces, is the legitimate conclusion from a 
doctrine previously affirmed), "Wherefore, my beloved 
brethren, let every man be swift to hear [this word of 
truth], and slow to speak it," — exactly harmonizing 
with the advice given further on in the Epistle, (chap, 
iii. 1,) " My brethren, be not many masters " (jxtj 
ttoXXoI SiSao-KaAoi yiveaOe, — literally, " Be not many of 
you teachers'''') — do not lightly covet the position of 
an instructor in Divine Truth ; for thereby your re- 
sponsibilities will be increased, and your shortcoming 
.aggravated — " knowing that we " (the ministers of 
God's Word, the Apostle among the number) " shall 
receive," (if unfaithful to our trust,) " the greater 
damnation." No doubt, with the more educated 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 121 

Jewish converts, specially those who had imbibed 
Pharisaical principles, the arrogating to themselves 
the position of teachers would be a very popular form 
of sin. No doubt there were many among them who 
trusted, as St. Paul intimates, that "they themselves 
were guides of the blind, lights of them which were in 
darkness, instructors of the ignorant, and teachers of 
babes." A similar spirit of presumption and cen- 
soriousness is condemned by Our Lord in the Sermon 
on the Mount, where He recommends His hearers to 
cast out first the beam out of their own eye, before 
they animadvert on the mote which is in their brother's 
eye. 

It seems probable, therefore, that the words of St. 
James refer, in the first instance, to words of religious 
instruction or admonition. 

But only in the first instance. We must not ex- 
clude a subordinate, but very important reference, to 
the whole range of Conversation. Though'we should 
always, in the first instance, endeavour to discover the 
contextual connexion of the words of Holy Scripture, 
no passage is to be so pinned down to one narrow 
department of meaning, as that it shall not be allowed 
to soar above its context. A large and comprehensive 
view must be taken of Scriptural precepts, and of this 
among the rest. One great use of words is, that we 
may edify others thereby. This may be done while 
instructing them on ordinary subjects, as well as in a 
higher form, by direct religious teaching. Moreover, 
all words — and not only those spoken in a religious 
assembly — are uttered before God. He hears them all, 
and notes their character. " Lo, there is not a word 
in my tongue, but Thou, Lord, knowest it alto- 
gether." So that involved in such prohibitions as — 



122 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

" When ye pray, use not vaim repetitions, as the 
heathen do," — and again, " Be not rash with thy 
month, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any 
thing before God, for God is in heaven, and thou upon 
earth : therefore, let thy words be few," — is a general 
precept of self-restraint in the use of words. And, 
accordingly, such a precept, as we have seen, occurs in 
the Inspired Volume without any special reference to 
words of religious instruction. " In the multitude of 
words there wanteth not sin." And again, " He that 
hath knowledge spareth his words : and a man of 
understanding is of an excellent spirit." " Even a 
fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise : and 
he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of under- 
standing." 

Having thus seen what principle Holy Scripture 
lays down for the guidance of Conversation, let us 
proceed to give some hints for the application of the 
principle to practice. 

I. " Let every man be swift to hear." 

A desire of gaining instruction is one of the first 
dispositions with which we must engage in Conversa- 
tion, if we desire to make it profitable, — nay, even 
entertaining, — to both parties. 

Let it be considered a fixed and ascertained truth, 
that your neighbour, however he may be inferior to 
you in some points of station and attainment, is able 
to impart to you some information which you do not 
possess. This is not a fancy, it is a real truth. We are 
told that, as to spiritual endowments, mankind are 
all one Body, — that the Lord has not lodged the ful- 
ness of His gifts in any one person, save the God-man, 
— that the wisdom, knowledge, ability of all mere men 
are but fragmentary, — that one has the qualification 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 123 

which his neighbour lacks, and lacks the qualification 
which his neighbour has. And we are informed 
further of the significance and design of this arrange- 
ment — it is pointed out to us how this diversity of 
gifts in each individual contributes not only to the 
dependance of all upon One Great Head, but to mutual 
interdependance. The design is, that there should be 
an imperative demand among men for the services of 
one another — that the need of one man may be sup- 
plied out of the abundance of another, and that the 
person so assisted should reciprocate, by giving of what 
he possesses. And what is said of spiritual endow- 
ments, and of this world's wealth, applies with equal 
truth to the great stock of general knowledge disparted 
among mankind. It too is unequally distributed — one 
man has the ten talents, and another five, and a third 
but one ; — yet the most cursory experience of life, the 
daily work by which the livelihood is earned, gives 
some portion of it to all. A mechanic knows how to 
perform the manual processes of his trade — a philo- 
sopher, though deeply versed in the principles upon 
which the art is founded, would probably handle the 
tools in such a manner as to produce a certain failure. 
The knowledge of books, and an extensive acquaintance 
with literature, may easily consist with a profound 
ignorance of common things, external nature, or the 
current intelligence of the day. Let it be remembered 
that this current intelligence, if it concern worthy 
subjects, and not the frivolous movements of modern 
society, — if it turn upon political measures, or the 
events passing on the theatre of the world, — is a legi- 
timate part of the great fund of knowledge, and that 
a man who has mastered it, is so far forth a better 
informed man than he who has not. The events of 



124< Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

the day — those, I mean, which affect our country 
and the world at large — are the elements of Modern 
History. 

Let it be assumed, then, that every man has some 
piece of knowledge to impart to us, which we ourselves 
do not possess. 

And, this being the case, let us, when either casually 
or by design we enter into company, set ourselves to 
the finding out what that something is. Possibly 
it is nothing in our own line — nothing that is to be 
found in books — nothing connected with any ambitious 
department of knowledge. And, therefore, you think 
it is not worth your listening to — much less, your 
casting about how you may extract it. Oh the nar- 
rowness of the human mind, and the contemptible 
vanity of the human heart ! " Because it does not lie 
in my department, — because the subject, though really 
a subject of human knowledge, is not sufficiently 
dignified for my consideration, — because my mind 
happens to be a perfect blank upon such topics, — 
therefore I need not care to know aught about it." 
Alas ! my brother, such knowledge, though it moves 
in an humble sphere, may deal with subjects which 
affect the well-being of the human race more intimately 
than any sublimer study. The sublime processes of 
nature are not the most essential processes. It is not 
the flash of the lightning, nor the distant muttering of 
the thunder, nor the tumbling of the avalanche rever- 
berated by a thousand hills, — it is not these which are 
the most potent agencies of Nature for good, but 
rather the distillation of the little dewdrop on the 
blade of grass, and the noiseless stealing down of the 
early and the latter rain. And the sublime processes 
of Art are not the most essential processes. It may 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 125 

be much questioned, whether the manufacture of a 
balloon is half as serviceable to mankind as the manu- 
facture of a drain. And, similarly, thy brother's 
humbler knowledge may pertain to matters much more 
essential than thy more aspiring flight of wisdom. 

Our practical suggestion is, then, that an effort 
should be made to extract from those with whom the 
occasions of life bring us into contact, that portion of 
useful knowledge, which out of the common stock they 
have appropriated to themselves. " Let every man be 
swift to hear." 

What are the subjects in which, by his circum- 
stances and position, he is likely to be interested? 
How can I draw him on to speak of them ? If these 
questions were uppermost in the mind, and if conversa- 
tion were pursued in the spirit of them, it would not 
be so barren a thing as it often is. The sense of un- 
profitableness which so often oppresses us after an hour 
spent in company, would be effectually dissipated. 
And more than this — such a plan would relieve con- 
versation of the dulness which so often attaches to it. 
How often do we long to escape from the necessity of 
talking, which courtesy imposes, as from a bitter 
thraldom ! How often does the exertion become in- 
tolerably irksome, because it really consists in fetching 
up from the mine of the Memory small buckets full 
of commonplace and formal remarks, in which neither 
party feels the smallest interest, and which are only 
bandied to and fro from a false feeling that to drop 
them altogether would not be well-bred, and that 
somebody must say something. Intolerable drudgery, 
indeed. Now let us make the experiment, whe- 
ther the motto, " Swift to hear," may -not furnish a 
remedy. Discarding every notion of self-conceit, let 



128 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

us regard ourselves in conversation as learners, in 
quest of something which will furnish us better for the 
various occasions of life. We shall succeed, no doubt, 
clumsily at first — better by a little practice — by God's 
Grace, well in time. But be our success what it may, 
we must, as Christians, absolutely renounce all vapid 
words, which have in them no salt of wit or wisdom. 
We are not at liberty — plainly not — to talk for talk- 
ing's sake — to say something at all hazards — to throw 
out words, without the desire either to amuse or in- 
struct. The warning against idle words must be 
heeded, at whatever expense of freedom in conversa- 
tion. For He uttered the warning, whose lips are full 
of Grace, and at our peril may we slight even the least 
of His Commandments. 

II. We now turn to the second part of the Scrip- 
tural Precept — " Let every man be slow to speak." 
This is involved in, and would naturally follow from, 
what went before. For if a man be simply desirous to 
receive instruction, he will not be over ready, although 
he will not be backward, to communicate it. The pre- 
cept, however, is of such importance, that it cannot be 
left to inference. We need not to arrive at it in the 
way of deduction : it is given us directly and explicitly, 
in a form which cannot be evaded ; " Let every man 
be slow to speak." Now, as one design of the former 
precept was to communicate an interest to conversa- 
tion, by setting each party upon an inquiry, as to what 
knowledge his neighbour might be possessed of, so the 
main scope of this is to prevent one party from selfishly 
engrossing all the interest of it. 

Is it not remarkable how minute and detailed the 
Word of God is in its censure of evil, and how profound, 
in its analysis and exposure of the motives from which 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 127 

evil springs ? Though, in compliance with its own 
principles, its words are few, yet how exploring are 
they — how do they detect the hidden flaw in our social 
intercourse, and point to its origin ! 

The way of society — the principles upon which the 
intercourse of the world is regulated — is this. It is 
assumed as an axiom, that the greater part of mankind 
have nothing to contribute to the common stock of 
knowledge, but that some favoured individuals have a 
gift of entertaining others by their Conversation, how- 
ever little they may instruct them. The individuals 
thus favoured soon feel, and begin to exercise, their own 
powers. The admiration, even of a small circle, flatters 
their vanity, and they bid high for it, by making every 
effort, when in company, to be thought agreeable. Nor 
is this effort, apart from the motive which originates it, 
any thing but commendable. It is every man's duty to 
seek to entertain and instruct the society in which he 
moves. But, then, there is in the effort of the worldling 
the poison root of selfishness, which vitiates it at the 
core. He cares not for pleasing others, except so far 
as they yield him the homage of admiration. His ver- 
satility, and his volubility, his anecdotes, and his bon- 
mots, are, from beginning to end, a process of self- 
glorification. And so long as he encounters no obstacle 
in the pursuit of his objects, his humour is complaisant 
and his demeanour affable. But let another person, 
equally gifted, enter the same sphere, and, with no less 
pretentions to a hearing, claim to be heard. This will 
often develope, to the view of all, the selfishness which 
before was latent. Discontented and mortified by 
• having found a rival in the power of entertaining, the 
man retires into himself. If he cannot be the first 
object of attraction, he does not care to entertain at all. 



128 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

But, "Reader, the way of society is not God's way, 
nor are the principles upon which worldly intercourse 
is regulated, Scriptural principles. God teaches that 
no man may put himself in a false position, by arro- 
gating to himself the exclusive power of entertaining 
and instructing the society in which he moves, — that, 
as no man is really endued with all knowledge in every 
department, so it is hypocrisy and a lie for any man to 
pretend that he is, and to monopolize conversation, as 
if he were ; — " Let every man be slow to speak." Scrip- 
ture prescribes the disposition with which a man should 
enter upon conversation, as one of candour in confess- 
ing ignorance, and of readiness to receive instruction ; 
— " Let every man be swift to hear." 

Now, if these principles were uniformly carried out, 
how different a scene would society present from that 
which we so often witness. The secret heart-burnings 
and jealousies, which are sometimes fomented by an 
evening in company, would cease, and Conversation, 
instead of lapsing into the vanity of an empty display, 
whose hollowness is apparent afterwards, would become 
a source of mutual profit and satisfaction to all con- 
cerned in it. 

" But may I not be brilliant in conversation, — may 
I not shine in that which I know to be my own de- 
partment ? " says some one, who feels that he is gifted 
that way. You may, nay, you must, exercise every 
gift that God has given you; but no gift may you 
exercise, if you are a liegeman of the Cross, and a 
follower of the Nazarene, with the design of attracting 
admiration. Words were given for the ends of enter- 
tainment and instruction — they were given for the 
glorification of God, but I nowhere read that they 
were given for the glorification of self. In order to see 



Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 129 

more clearly how serious the fault is, which we are 
censuring, observe that the operation of the same prin- 
ciple which leads a man to engross conversation, by 
way of glorifying himself, turns him into an Heresiarch 
in the higher sphere of religious teaching. For what 
is an Heresiarch ? An Heresiarch is one who, in virtue 
of his own peculiar constitution of mind, seizes upon 
some one point in the ample compass of Divine Truth. 
In the narrowness of his mind, he conceives all truth 
to be wrapped up in this one doctrine, — he looks 
down upon those counterbalancing doctrines, which are 
equally based upon the authority of Holy Scripture, 
and which present themselves more forcibly to minds 
of another cast. He does not apprehend the catholicity 
of God's Truth, or the fact that all men's minds are 
but partial receptacles of it — that one mind is more 
vividly impressed by one portion of it, another by 
another. Accordingly, if endowed with the gift of 
Speech, he seeks to gain attention for his one aspect of 
Truth, and to make all others do homage to it. He 
succeeds : and (for it is pleasant to be listened to) suc- 
cess gratifies his vanity. He forms an entire theory 
upon his one doctrine, magnifying it in very undue 
proportions, — and attracts notice, and wins followers. 
Perhaps Schism (that is, separation from the Church) 
follows. The Church holds all truth, and he holds a 
part. The Church flatters no man's vanity, and he has 
a vast stock of vanity, which requires to be flattered. 
He can speak, and, therefore, to speak he will be for- 
ward — if not in the Church, at least, in the Meeting 
House. It is the same vanity, and the same forget- 
fulness that every one holds a portion of truth, which, 
in a sphere not religious, leads a man to that monopoly 
of conversation which the Scripture censures. 
i. w. I 



130 Hints for the Guidance of Conversation. 

Finally, a valuable rule for the Guidance of our Con- 
versation is to be obtained from a passage to which I 
have as yet made no reference. We know the manner 
in which Holy Scripture speaks — we know how brief 
and chastised are its delineations, and yet how signi- 
ficant — we know, when it paints character, how few 
and simple are the touches of the pencil, and yet how 
graphic and expressive — how, through the whole 
Volume (composed by divers human authors, and at 
periods of time separated by long intervals), runs the 
characteristic of few words, and deep wisdom — little 
rhetoric, and much point. Well, let us make it a 
model for the style of our Conversation. We are 
bidden so to do. Let us be chastised in our talk. Let 
us strive that, as far as may be, each word we drop may 
have some point in it — some worth and weight, and 
solidity. In other, and better language, — " If ant 
man" speak, let him speak as the oracles of 
God." 



■ ■ 



CHAPTER X. 

ON EELIGIOTJS CONVERSATION. 

" Qnls tf)t$ talfotf toQtfyzx of all tf)tse things oorjtri) rjati fmp= 
pmtt. %nts it cam* to pass, tfjat, incite tfjcu communetr 
together antt waaonrtr, 3tesus himself trreto near arrtf fioent 
fcott^ t^tm." — Luke xxiv. 14, 15. 

Otjr subject in these pages has been Speech — in its 
origin — in its responsibility — and in its application to 
the Worship of God, and to the entertainment and 
edification of the mind. We endeavoured, in our last 
Chapter, to give some practical suggestions for conver- 
sation on topics merely useful and interesting, without 
being directly religious ; in this final essay of the series, 
we shall endeavour to give some hints on the grave and 
important topic of Spiritual Conversation. 

I. Now it is evident, at the outset, that of religious 
conversation there may be two kinds. Such conver- 
sation may turn upon that which passes within. We 
may reveal to our friends our religious experience 
(meaning by religious experience, the fluctuating con- 
ditions of our spiritual life,, the religious impressions 
made by various means upon our souls, the sentiments 
and reflections to which circumstances give rise within 
us, the personal dealings which we conceive Almighty 
God to have had with us in Providence or in Grace, and 
i2 



132 On Religious Conversation. 

so forth) — or we may discuss religious truth which is 
external to our own minds, and of which a vast field 
lies open to us, inviting that investigation which is 
sometimes best carried on by the contact of mind with 
mind. 

Thus, assuming, for the sake of an illustration, that 
St. Peter was one of the disciples, who, on the day of 
the Resurrection, walked to Emmaus (as we know he 
was not) — he might have discussed with his compa- 
nion the shame and remorse which ever since his fall 
had hung like a dark cloud over his mind, and his 
earnest wish to make amends to his Master, now that 
it seemed as if amends could no longer be made ; or the 
conversation of the two comrades might have turned, 
as it actually did turn, upon Christ, — they might have 
talked together of the things which had happened, 
taking a summary retrospect of that wonderful career, 
now that it had closed upon them (as they thought) 
for ever, and refreshing one another's memory on its 
various incidents — the miracles by which its progress 
had been marked, and the words of Grace which, on 
various occasions, had fallen from the lips of Him who 
spake as never man spake. 

Let us take each of these kinds of religious conver- 
sation in order, and consider how far each of them is 
intrinsically proper and edifying. 

Speech (and therefore conversation, which is a form 
of speech) is the index or expression of the thoughts of 
man. Language is the outcoming of the human mind. 

Now there is an analogy between the mind of man, 
in its operation upon ideas, and the senses 01 man, in 
their operation upon matter. 

The senses — sight, hearing, touch, and the rest, — 
are so constructed as to throw us into the outer world. 



On Beligiom Conversation, 133 

The senses are perfect, only when we forget that we 
have them, and throw ourselves, by the exercise of 
them, into the various objects which are presented 
to us. 

When, for example, we gaze upon a fair landscape 
from some eminence, and are wholly absorbed in the 
beauty of the plain outstretched beneath our feet, 
dotted here and there with cattle, and intersected with 
silver streams — upon the outline, undulating or jagged, 
of the purple hills in the distance — and upon the sheets 
of water which lie embosomed in the woods, the sense 
of sight has fulfilled its object in the just and legitimate 
way, it has operated naturally, as it ought to operate. 
We have not seen the eye ; for no sense operates upon 
itself. What we have seen is the object. Of the eye 
we have lost all thought. We have not been conscious 
even of possessing an eye. We have been engaged 
with the landscape. 

It is the same with the other senses. They all throw 
themselves, by their natural constitution, outward. 
None of them have any reflex action upon themselves. 
And they are in a sound state, only when we forget 
that we possess them. A strain of music enchains the 
ear ; it wakens up a train of associations in the mind, 
which carry the listener far away from the circum- 
stances which at present surround him, — but he is 
quite unconscious of the inlet by which those associa- 
tions entered, — he thinks not of the ear. A sweet 
breath of hay or seaweed bears him back again to the 
time of his youth, when he played in the hay-field or 
upon the beach, — he lives again for a time amid the 
scenes of his childhood, — but he thinks not of the organ 
by which the impression is received. 

I say, he thinks not of it. There is no reflection of 



134 On 'Religious Conversation. 

the mind upon the operation of the senses. And, of 
course, there is no reflex action of the senses upon 
themselves. The eye is not so constituted that it 
can see itself, nor the ear that it can hear itself: 
their construction points to something in the out- 
ward world — a scene, or a sound, which they are to 
apprehend. 

Now you are to observe, that, if there were any such 
reflex action, either of the mind upon the operations 
of sense, or of the senses upon themselves, this would 
indicate disease in the organs of sense. If a man's 
attention, or consciousness, is divided between the 
landscape and his eye, it is because the eye is not 
single, there is some flaw in it. If, while listening 
to a strain of music, he imagines that he hears it in a 
singular or unwonted manner, — that he hears the notes 
doubled, for example, or unduly prolonged, — this is 
because the sense of hearing is out of order. In any 
healthy exercise of the organ, he would not be sensible 
of its presence : when he is so sensible, that indicates 
something amiss. 

JSTow, there is a resemblance between man's mind 
and his senses, as generally there is a correspondence 
between the outward and the inward frame. The 
senses are adapted by their construction to the matter 
which is outside of, and independent of, themselves. 
The mind is adapted by its constitution to the appre- 
hension and contemplation of objects which are quite 
independent of, and outside of, its internal mechanism. 
Thus, for example, the affections of fear, hope, com- 
passion, and love, have reference to certain objects upon 
which they are designed to fasten. Fear does not fear 
itself, nor compassion compassionate itself, nor love 
love itself, but fear apprehends danger, and makes us 



On Religious Conversation. 135 

fly ; compassion fastens npon distress, and disposes us 
to relieve it ; love, upon some object of natural affection, 
and disposes us to benefit that object. 

And, in the purely intellectual faculties, the same 
feature is observable. Our minds are adapted to the 
investigation and contemplation of truths which are 
independent of them, and outside them. They may 
investigate the laws which govern the universe, from 
the phenomena which the universe presents. They 
may throw themselves, through the medium of history, 
into scenes which have been enacted in bygone ages. 
Finally, they may contemplate the Spiritual Truths 
propounded in the Bible, and derive upon them- 
selves, from that contemplation, a happy and an holy 
influence. 

But supposing that, instead of operating thus, the 
feelings, affections, and thoughts, should fall back 
upon themselves, and contemplate their own opera- 
tions. Supposing that in an hour of imminent peril 
— when on the verge of a shipwreck — the mind were 
to run, not upon the danger, but upon the affection 
of fear — that, instead of taking all due precautions, we 
were engaged in a speculation upon the origin and pre- 
cise amount of the alarm experienced on the present 
occasion. Or, supposing that, when our path was 
crossed by an object of distress, we paused to analyze 
the feeling of compassion, as to how far it might be 
genuine on the present occasion, or how far other 
motives might dispose us to relieve this case. Or, 
supposing that we always had in our minds the affec- 
tion felt by us for some member of our family, and, as 
having it much upon our minds, were constantly to be 
bringing it forward in conversation, and exposing it 
to others. Or, supposing, finally, that in a piece of 



136 On Religious Conversation. 

historical research, a man were to please himself, 
not with a picture of ancient manners, elicited by a 
careful study of ancient monuments, and the patching 
together of notices, found in sundry dry old chronicles, 
but with the thought of his own acumen in shedding 
this light upon an obscure period, — what should we 
infer from all this, as to the soundness or unsoundness 
of the mental and moral powers? We should say 
at once that they were morbid, and their action 
unhealthy. As the eye is conscious of the landscape, 
not of its own visual power, the ear conscious of the 
music, not of its own structure, — so the mind ought to 
be conscious only of the external objects upon which it 
fastens, and when it turns back again upon itself, this 
is a proof of some disease inherent in it. 

Now, possibly, if the reader has followed me thus 
far, his mind will jump prematurely to one conclusion, 
which seems to present an objection to what has been 
said. 

You will naturally ask, — Is, then, all reflection of 
the mind upon its own processes, to be discouraged ? 
Is not Self-Examination a duty prescribed in Holy 
Scripture ? And what is Self-Examination, but a 
reflection of the mind upon its own processes ? Is 
it intended to suggest that we should not constantly 
be looking into our own hearts and characters, and 
endeavouring to act upon the maxim, said of old to 
have come down from Heaven, yvu>6i aeavrov ? 

Self-Examination, in the present circumstances of 
our nature, is, no doubt, a most important and arduous 
duty. Bat it is no less true, that Self-Examination 
has reference to a flaw in our nature, and in a perfect 
condition of the mental and moral powers, would not 
exist. The object of Self-Examination is to ascertain 



On Religious Conversation. 137 

how far our hearts are right with God, But supposing 
(which, since the Fall is a purely imaginary case) 
that our hearts were never wrong with God — that 
the magnetic needle of the Will always turned steadily, 
and without oscillation, in the direction of God — could 
there be then any place for Self-Examination ? Surely 
none. Self-Examination was unknown in Paradise. 
Our first parents, before the Fall, were innocents in 
the strictest sense of that term, throwing themselves, 
with keenest enjoyment, into all the objects of delight 
which surrounded them in the pure and happy garden ; 
but never analyzing their own sensations, or reflecting 
upon the instrumentality by which they were produced. 
We may conceive them to have been essentially unre- 
flecting (in the limited sense of the word reflection) — 
absorbed, indeed, in the contemplation of the Divine 
Goodness, and in the appreciation of those blessings 
with which He had crowned their cup, — but self in no 
shape entering into their thoughts. But, by the Fall, 
a great flaw entered both into the physical and moral 
nature of man. Thenceforth it became necessary for 
the physician to examine the structure of the organs 
of sense, and to acquaint himself, as far as possible, 
with the theory of sensation, in order that he 
might minister to the relief of the organs of sense, 
when deranged. And, thenceforth, it became neces- 
sary to exercise Self-Examination, — that man should 
analyze his own motives, should investigate his own 
feelings, and try by the revealed rule of right, his 
conduct and his character. All this was made ne- 
cessary by superinduced evil — it was not necessary 
originally. 

And now we have sufficiently examined the roots of 
the subject, to see our way to an answer to the question 



138 On 'Religious Conversation. 

raised at the outset of the Chapter. And the answer T 
give is this, — The revelation of our own inward experi- 
ence to other men — the talking of our own frames 
and feelings, or of the personal dealings which Grod may 
have had with us — is only desirable, so far forth as 
it contributes to the great end of Self-Examination. 
If it tends to give us self-knowledge — to develope 
more fully in our consciousness our own unworthi- 
ness and G-od's great Love — then doubtless it is 
desirable. 

By the help of this principle, we must make out 
when conversation of this kind would be an advantage, 
and when it would not. The object of Self-Examina- 
tion is the gaining a deeper sense of our own sinful- 
ness. And the object of gaining this deeper sense is 
that we may recur with a stronger faith and more 
entire simplicity to Christ. If then this deeper sense 
of sinfulness can be forwarded or fostered by the 
disclosure either to an intimate friend, or to a clergy- 
man (yes, to a clergyman, — we are not afraid of truth, 
because the Roman Church abuses and caricatures it) 
of our own inward religious life, we shall do well and 
wisely to make that disclosure, and to solicit the 
prayers for us of the person to whom it is made. 
The doing so would only be acting in accordance with 
the inspired principle — " Confess your sins one to 
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be 
healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous 
man availeth much." I feel, however, that it behoves 
us at all times to be jealously watchful over our own 
minds, while making such communications. We may 
suffer real spiritual mischief by a too free or too general 
disclosure of feelings, which, as turning upon our own 
personal relation to God, are invested with a peculiar 



On Religious Conversation. 139 

sacredness. It will be well for me briefly to point out 
how this mischief may arise. 

Who, that knows himself, knows not the subtlety of- 
pride ? Who knows not that pride takes its occasion 
from our religious actions, from our religious feelings, 
and is the cankerworm at the root of them, that blights 
and makes them rotten ? We cannot express ourselves 
humbly, we cannot confess our sins heartily, but 
pride, like a malignant fluid, secreted from the heart, 
poisons our humility and our confession. Now it is 
evident that pride may feel a great deal of complacency, 
when we speak out to another the most secret and 
sacred feelings of our own breast. The reflection will 
perforce suggest itself, do what we may to keep it 
down, — " Is not this act of self-abasement a proof of 
my real goodness? Could a man have the feelings 
which I disclose, and which by the disclosure I unfold 
in my own consciousness, without having really some 
measure of saintliness ? Will not the person to whom 
I disclose them, think better of me, instead of worse, 
for the disclosure ? " 

I by no means say that the occasion which the 
talking of Religious Experience gives to feelings of this 
character, ought to be a bar to it altogether. There is 
no religious exercise in the world, from which pride 
may not and does not take its occasion. If it is rather 
more apt to do so from this kind of conversation than 
from any other duty, it is because it is the most 
personal of all duties, the most bound up and identified 
with self. This consideration should make us, not 
backward in disclosing our feelings when the doing so 
may be attended with advantage, — but only guarded 
and watchful over our own minds, while making the 
disclosure. 



140 On Religious Conversation. 

Guardedness in exposing our feelings should arise 
from the consideration, that by thus diffusing them 
we evaporate their strength. This is a law of the 
constitution of our nature, the operation of which 
is inevitable. The sentiments of the heart, especially 
those of the most personal and sacred character, 
resemble fragrant odours. If you break the box of 
ointment, the fragrance must be more or less dissipated 
in the air. The concentration of a religious feeling in 
the deep cell of the heart, is its strength — its diffusion 
sometimes proves its weakness. There is one direction, 
however, and one only, in which it may be diffused 
without perilling its strength. The exposure of the 
heart's sentiments to Christ in confession of guilt, 
and acknowledgment of His mercies — in application for 
His sympathy and aid — this, as bringing us into con- 
tact with the One Source of light and strength, cannot 
but confirm and intensify them. From Him we can 
conceal nothing ; and it is our highest wisdom and 
privilege to pour out the heart before Him. Mary 
broke her alabaster box of ointment upon His feet, and 
that offering He endued by His Word with an undying 
fragrance. " Verily I say unto you, that wheresoever 
this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there 
shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for 
a memorial of her." 

Let the odour of our affections go forth towards 
Christ ; and they shall preserve their fragrance fresh 
and enduring. 

The third and last consideration, which I shall 
adduce against an undue divulging of our religious 
feelings to others is, that this practice, however some- 
times necessary and desirable, cannot but counteract a 
secret, true, and natural instinct within us. There is a 



■■MV 



On Religious Conversation. 141 

remarkable analogy between the way in which we 
regard our physical frame, and that in which we regard 
our moral frame. Ever since the Fall, which brought 
in a consciousness of imperfection, man has shrunk 
from scrutiny — nakedness has been accompanied with 
shame. The first effect of man's sin was to make him 
hide himself among the trees of the garden, and depre- 
cate exposure, — and the Lord condescended to this 
instinct, and recognized its naturalness under the 
circumstances, when " for Adam and his wife He made 
garments of skin and clothed them." And thus it is 
with our moral framework, too. We feel an instinctive 
reluctance to expose it, to lay bare the privacy of our 
heart's recesses before another. The heart, it is said, 
and there are periods when all, however surrounded 
with intimate and kind friends, must realize it — " the 
heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth 
not intermeddle with his joy." Joseph screens the 
intensity of his affections from human eye, — not merely 
because the public indulgence of them might have led 
to premature discovery, but from deeper reasons — 
reasons connected with the constitution of his nature. 
" His bowels," it is said, " did yearn upon his brother : 
and he sought where to weep ; and he entered into his 
chamber, and wept there." 

" He could not trust his melting soul, 

But in His Maker's sight ; 
Then why should gentle hearts and true, 
Bare to the rude world's withering view, 

Their treasure of delight ? " 

If, then, the instinct of reserve be a true and natural 
one, we should not violate it without just reasons 
moving us thereunto, and due limitations. Nature 
itself would teach us to select the confidant from the 



142 On Religious Conversation. 

number of the most intimate, or of those who have 
most conciliated, and have the justest claims upon, our 
esteem. 

But are there no religious topics, save those which 
are of a personal character, and which turn upon our 
own inner and spiritual life? Surely, as the whole 
realm of Nature lies open before the eye of the body, 
wherein the Philosopher may explore minutely, and 
discover by such investigation ever fresh wonders — 
wherein the simple lover of nature may find ever some 
new feature of beauty to dwell upon, with awe and 
rapture, — so there is, without the human mind, a 
spiritual world, which will appear, upon research, inex- 
haustible, will open up fresh wonders at every turn, and 
present fresh features of moral grace and wisdom, as 
the believer contemplates it with more of simplicity 
and devotion. The Word of God — the Truths of God 
— elementary or advanced — this is the sublime realm 
which the human mind is permitted and invited to 
explore — and which, as those are aware who have made 
trial of it, will amply repay investigation. And con- 
versation, the contact of mind with mind, has a ten- 
dency to shed peculiar light upon this investigation. 

"We seldom discuss a difficulty, without at least 
opening a way towards the solution of it. All minds 
run in a track of their own, and sometimes, if we 
pursue our own speculations too far, independently of 
the views taken by others, the track becomes a rut, and 
thought is beset by an entanglement and perplexity. 
The mode of obviating this mischief is by the inter- 
change of friendly conversation on the thoughts arising 
out of God's Truth. If such conversation be conducted 
in a right spirit, it will be surely blessed by God, to 
greater clearness on our part. The two disciples had 



On Religious Conversation. 143 

not long communed together, and reasoned npon their 
common perplexities, before light sprung up to them, 
and the Expositor was at hand. Jesus Himself drew 
near, and went with them ; and beginning at Moses 
and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all 
the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Yes, 
mark the words — "the things concerning Himself." 
What other testimony had Moses and the Prophets to 
bear, but such as had reference, either directly or in- 
directly, to the Lord Jesus— to His Advents, His 
Divine Person, His Humanity, His offices of Grace, 
His work of Love and Pity ? With what other testi- 
mony is the whole of Scripture charged, but that of 
Christ, Christ, Christ ? Christ, in the typical His- 
tories of the Old Testament. Christ, in the typical 
Ceremonies of the Mosaic Law. Christ, in the Psalms, 
as the source of the Christian's consolation, and the 
key to unlock all the affections of his heart. Christ, in 
the Prophecies, as Captain of the great triumph over 
evil — predicted with greater clearness as time wears on. 
Christ, in the Gospels, as the Healer and Benefactor of 
the race. Christ, in the Epistles, as the Wisdom of God. 
Christ, in the Revelation, as the Coming One, whose 
Advent is ever imminent, the pole-star of Hope, upon 
which the Christian's eye is ever fixed. Header, the Scrip- 
tures are, indeed, full of Christ, and we have His own 
testimony that we shall read them amiss, and discuss 
them amiss, unless our study and our discussion lead us 
to find Him in them. To commune of the Scriptures, if 
we commune aright, will be to commune of the Lord. As 
in the realm of nature, one form — that of the tree, with 
its branching arms — continually presents itself to the eye 
— so, in Scripture, the Cross of Christ ever presents itself 
to the mind. Let us expect, and seek, and pray to discern 



144 On Religious Conversation. 

it there. Let the mind operate by conversation, as 
well as by reading and meditation, on the Word of God, 
until this image of the Cross stands out on every page. 
With how large a blessing may such conversation 
reasonably look to be fraught ! It may begin in per- 
plexity, it shall end in clearness. It may begin with 
the presence of two or three — it shall end with the 
spiritual presence of a Fourth, " whose form is like that 
of the Son of God." He shall join us as we commune 
together and reason, and dissipate the cloud from our 
minds, and finally open our eyes, that we should know 
Him. 

We have now brought the subject which has occupied 
our attention through these pages, to a close. As 
regards that part of it which has been treated in this 
Chapter, it is rather the necessity of completing our 
topic, which has led to the discussion of it, than the 
feeling that the evil specially censured in it is popular 
or prevalent. The last fault to which the many are 
likely to be tempted, is that of laying bare too freely 
to the eye of their friends the recesses of their own 
inner life. Rather, surely, the ordinary temptation is 
the far more dangerous one — to discard from conver- 
sation all religious topics as being grave and serious, 
and an undue check upon merriment — and " to speak 
often one to another," not on spiritual concerns, but 
upon topics unedifying, frivolous at best, and possibly 
sinful or profane. 

I trust that in the preceding pages the sin of Idle 
Words has been faithfully represented in its true colours ; 
and that some reader of this little Book may have 
received a warning against continuance in that sin, 
which may resound in his conscience for some little 
time. 



On Religious Conversation. 14-5 

It is a great thing (nay, it is the first step towards 
right conduct) to be impressed with the responsibility 
which the faculty of Speech entails upon us. Jesus, 
when He restored that faculty to a dumb man, sighed, 
and said " Ephphatha." Why did He sigh ? Was 
that sigh an indication that the Lord was about to 
confer an awful power, a power which might be awfully 
abused, as it might also be made the medium of infinite 
good ? Was it equivalent to saying, " Son of man, 
hitherto shut out from the power of sinning with the 
lips, upon the brink of what an awful responsibility art 
thou standing ! This giving thee an articulate tongue, 
to use or abuse, is almost like endowing thee with a 
soul, which, while it has a capacity of heavenly bliss, is 
also susceptible of being degraded to the lowest hell." 

Was this the Saviour's mind when He sighed ? It 
may be so ; for indeed the tongue, being the faculty by 
which Reason is exercised, is so closely allied with 
the Reason, that to give articulate speech is akin to 
endowing with Reason. 

And so, in view of this intimate association, it is 
written — 

"Death and life " (spiritual death and life) " are in 
the power of the tongue." " Whoso keepeth his mouth 
and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles." 

And by a greater than Solomon it was said — 

" By thy words thou shalt be justified : and 
by thy words thou shalt be condemned." 

I cannot close this Chapter without bringing to the 
reader's memory a well-known passage of Cowper, — 
one of the beauties of English literature, — which sums 
up the argument of the preceding Chapter : — 

" It happened on a solemn eventide, 
Soon after He that was our Surety died, 
I. W. K 



146 On Religious Conversation. 

Two bosom friends, each pensively inclined, 

The scene of all those sorrows left behind, 

Sought their own village, busied as they went, 

In musings worthy of the great event : 

Tbey spake of Him they loved, of Him whose life, 

Though blameless, had incurr'd perpetual strife, 

Whose deeds had left, in spite of hostile arts, 

A deep memorial graven on their hearts. 

The recollection, like a vein of ore, 

The farther traced, enrich'd them still the more : 

They thought Him, and they justly thought Him, One, 

Sent to do more than He appear'd to have done ; 

To exalt a people, and to place them high 

Above all else, and wonder'd He should die. 

Ere yet they brought their journey to an end, 

A stranger join'd them courteous as a friend, 

And ask'd them, with a kind engaging air, 

What their affliction was, and begg'd a share. 

Inform'd, He gathered up the broken thread, 

And, truth and wisdom gracing all He said, 

Explain' d, illustrated, and search'd so well 

The tender theme on which they chose to dwell, 

That, reaching home, * The night,' they said, ' is near, 

' We must not now be parted, sojourn here.' — 

The new Acquaintance soon became a guest, 

And made so welcome at their simple feast, 

He bless'd the bread, but vanish'd at the word, 

And left them both exclaiming, ' 'Twas the Lord ! 

' Did not our hearts feel all He deigned to say ? 

' Did they not burn within us by the way ? ' 

Now theirs was converse, such as it behoves 
Man to maintain, and such as God approves : 
Their views indeed were indistinct and dim, 
But yet successful, being aim'd at Him ; 
Christ and His character their only scope, 
Their object, and their subject, and their hope. 



APPENDIX, 



k 2 



MH^^M-^^K^««ra^^ 



I subjoin, as an Appendix, a Sermon, which 
embraces two points respecting the Government of 
the Tongue omitted in the Essays. The Reader 
will pardon the re-appearance, in a homely dress, 
of two or three ideas which have been already in- 
troduced into the body of the Work. 



APPENDIX, 



A SERMON ON THE GOVERNMENT OF 
THE TONGUE. 

PREACHED IN RUGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL. 



James ii. 2—4. 



" For in many tMngs we offend all. If any man offend not in 
word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the 
whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that 
they may obey us ; and we turn about their whole body. 
Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are 
driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very 
small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth." 

The Apostle is speaking in these verses, of the Govern- 
ment of the Tongue. 

And He says of the Government of the Tongue two 
distinct things, which are not to be confounded to- 
gether — both strong things to say, but the latter 
stronger than the former. 

First, he says that the degree in which a man 
governs his tongue is an index of his whole moral 
state. An index. The hands of a watch, or the pro- 
jection of a sundial, are an index, by which you may 
ascertain the progress of Time, or in other words, how 
much of his course in the heavens the sun has accom- 



150 Sermon at Rugby, 

plished. The Sun (or rather the Earth in its diurnal 
revolution) travels silently and without noise. In 
order to be advertised at any moment of the Sun's 
exact stage of progress, we create an artificial index — 
the watch, or the dial, — -which reports that progress 
with accuracy. Similarly, our moral life, though 
always moving either forward or backward (for, my 
brethren, it is a solemn truth that there is no standing 
still in moral life) , yet moves slowly and imperceptibly ; 
as we cannot see the Sun moving (although after it has 
moved, we note that it is in a different quarter of the 
heavens), so we cannot see ourselves growing better 
or worse (although, after a lapse of time, we may take 
notice that we are more or less good than we were a 
year or six months ago). It is desirable, therefore, to 
have an exact index, by recurring to which, we may 
ascertain our moral progress. And this index, the 
Apostle says, is the Tongue. That is the thought of 
verse 2. Keep it distinct in your minds. 

But something more than this, — a further, and 
stronger statement, — is yet behind. 

The Government or non-government of the Tongue 
is not only an index. It is also a determining 
instrument. It is spoken of under the images of a 
bit and a rudder. Now what is a bit ? — an instrument 
which determines the course of a horse, which makes 
him turn to the right or to the left, which, if loose in 
his mouth, leaves him to a free and speedy action, and, 
if drawn tight, arrests his progress. Just so a rudder 
with a ship ; — it is the guiding instrument of the 
vessel's course. With the rudder you may turn the 
ship at a moment's notice as you please, but the 
guidance of a vessel which has lost her rudder, by the 
sails, is at all times a very difficult and dangerous 



on the Government of the Tongue. 151 

matter, — not likely to prosper in any but the most 
expert hands. 

Now this image, you observe, is an advance upon 
the index. The hands of the watch, and the index of 
the dial do not determine the Sun's course, nor have 
they the slightest influence upon it. They mark and 
announce its progress ; but they in no way bias its 
course, as the helm biases the course of the ship, and 
the bit biases the course of the horse. 

Now, then, I will say a word on these two great 
topics — the Tongue as the index of our moral career, 
and the Tongue as the governing instrument of our 
moral career. 

To those of you who are striving to be holy, and to 
imitate the example of Our Saviour, do I now address 
myself. And I pray that what I say may be made, by 
God, the means of helping you in that pursuit. 

First, the Tongue as an index. " If any man offend 
not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also 
to bridle the whole body." Only one perfect Man 
ever existed ; and of Him — in perfect accordance 
with the principle here laid down by the Apostle — 
it is written, not only that He did no sin, but also that 
" no guile was found in His mouth," that " when He 
was reviled, He reviled not again : when He suffered, 
He threatened not," — and, in another place, that 
" full of grace were His lips." The words of the text 
are not to be taken as implying that any man (except 
Him) is, in the judgment of God, perfect, but simply 
as asserting that the more closely any one approxi- 
mates to perfection, the more vigilantly will he be 
found to govern his tongue, so that his performance of 
this duty supplies an accurate touchstone of his ad- 
vance in holiness. 



152 Sermon at Rugby, 

And this will become quite obvious if we reflect, 
first, that to govern the tongue is a task so difficult, 
that he who has grace to accomplish it, has grace to 
accomplish any thing. The exceeding great difficulty 
of governing the tongue consists principally in the 
great scope there is for going wrong. Other tempta- 
tions only have scope for their enticements occasionally. 
When a man is in health and spirits, friends all around 
him, and affluence and prosperity his portion, he has 
no temptation to murmur. When he is poor, and is 
obliged to toil hard for a day's livelihood, there is no 
great scope for self-indulgence. If he lives a very 
retired life, and comes into little or no collision with 
society, of course his courtesjr and temper are not tried. 
If he is obliged to be busy about a work which de- 
mands close attention of the mind, there is no avenue 
by which an unclean thought can insinuate itself. 
But because the business of life cannot be carried 
on ivithout speaking, there is always ample verge and 
scope enough for offences of the tongue. In our least 
talkative day, the words which we speak from morn- 
ing to night, if written down, would almost fill a 
volume. Speech is continually passing from us by a 
thousand avenues of occasion, — we want something, or 
desire information, or have some intelligence to com- 
municate, or wish to please, or must do something to 
while away time, or to vent our feelings of irritation 
and peevishness. Even the reasonable and necessary 
occasions of speech — the occasions on which, without 
speech, the business of society could not be carried on, 
are very, very numerous. 

So that the reason why the Government of the 
Tongue is more arduous than any other duty, is the 
reason why it is more difficult for a military com- 



on the Government of the Tongue. 153 

mander to maintain a town which has a thousand 
outlets, than one which is only accessible at two or 
three points. In the latter case the garrison may be 
concentrated at the two or three vulnerable points. In 
the former, they must be dispersed in weak handfuls 
at the various outlets. Of course we gather with cer- 
tainty that, if the force suffices to maintain the city 
with many approaches, it will suffice to maintain the 
city with few. And the Word of God (all whose 
reasonings are, if I may say so, the reasonings of 
Inspired Common Sense) infers upon the same prin- 
ciple that he who can stand against sin successfully, 
where the avenues of temptation are numerous, can 
stand also where they are few. " If any man offend 
not in word, the same is a perfect man, and" able also 
to bridle the whole body." 

But now for a second reason why the tongue should 
be an accurate index of the moral state. Offences of 
the tongue are thought so little of by mankind in 
general, that he who is strict with himself here will be 
strict with himself, we may be sure, in all departments 
of duty. If he thinks gravely of wrong words, he can- 
not think lightly of wrong actions. You know how 
very little importance men generally attach to sins of 
the tongue — how strangely their judgment on this 
point is contrasted with that of Him Who said, — 
" Every idle word which men shall speak, they shall 
give account thereof in the day of judgment." Is not 
the tendency of our minds to reason thus — " A hasty 
word, vented in a moment of excitement — a slight mis- 
representation, a profane joke, an impure innuendo, — 
why it is all empty breath, — nothing serious is intended 
by it, and a man may be a very good man, who in- 
dulges in such words occasionally ?" Such is the pre- 



154 Sermon at 

valeiit notion. It is radically erroneous. It is wholly 
contrary to God's Word. It is probably glanced at in 
the third Commandment, where, after forbidding the 
taking His Name in vain, a sin which could not find 
place except in the exercise of the tongue, the Divirie 
Legislator solemnly adds — " The Lord will not hold 
him guiltless," (oh, verdict of the world, how wilt thou 
shrivel up into insignificance when God reveals His 
Judgment at the last day !) — " The Lord will not hold 
him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain." But 
however, such is the sad fact, that men do take a very 
light view of sins of the tongue, very much lighter 
than they do of other violations of duty. Now, if a 
man should be found, who, in his own case, takes a 
very grave view of this subject, watches and weighs 
his words strictly, and rejects scrupulously all that it 
comes into his mind to say, which would not tend 
either to some good end or to innocent amusement, — 
it is impossible, is it not, that that man should be a 
careless liver ? The care of his words is the index of a 
general care over what men reckon more important 
than words, — actions and feelings. 

Then the point seems to be proved by reason, as 
well as asserted in Scripture, that an accurate index of 
a man's entire moral condition is supplied by the 
Government of his Tongue. Weigh it well. Just as 
you resort to the sundial or the watch for the reckon- 
ing of time, so in your spiritual reckoning, in your acts 
of Self- Examination, you may consult the index of the 
tongue with the assurance that it will give no untrue 
verdict. To persons disposed to engage seriously in 
that arduous work, and yet beset (as we all are here) 
with manifold business, — this thought may really be a 
material assistance. You wish to examine your whole 



on the Government of the Tongue. 155 

moral character and life ? Examine the words of the 
past day, — they may be a sufficient criterion. Have 
you been watchful over them, or have you let them 
slip, without reflection, from your mouth ? Have you 
governed them — that is, inspected them before utter- 
ance, rejected one, approved another, chastised a third, 
and so on ? or, have you thrown the reins of self-disci- 
pline down, and let them take their course ? 

I am sure, from Reason and the Word of God, that 
this will be a true index ; that it will never give an in- 
accurate verdict. But oh ! is not this an alarming 
thought to many of you ? Ought it not at once to 
awaken you to the truth of your state, as with trum- 
pet call ? For there are very many of you who, so long 
as you do not go wrong in your lives, give yourselves 
no concern at all about your words. They may be 
good this hour, and bad the next, so far as your super- 
intendence is concerned, — for you never think of con- 
trolling them. And if vigilance over the words be, as 
God asserts it to be, the criterion of vigilance over the 
life — what is the conclusion ? What, but that you are 
taking no heed to administer your general conduct 
after the precepts of God, and give, therefore, the 
surest proof that, whatever outward privileges may 
attach to your lot, you have no spiritual life dwelling 
in you ? 

But now to turn to the other image. The tongue 
is not only the index, but the determining instrument 
also of our moral state. It not only points out, but 
regulates, — as the bit regulates the horse, and the helm 
the ship. This position is equally apparent, when we 
come to examine it, with the former. 

Take, as an example, the case of temper. A man 
has a strong temper, exceedingly irritable, and hard to 



156 Sermon at Hugby, 

overcome. If he is a man with no self-discipline, this 
temper bursts forth continually, and renders himself, 
and all around him, miserable. He is sensible of its 
mastery, and, in his cool moments, deplores it. Well, 
there is one obvious rule of wisdom which, if he clings 
to it stedfastly, will, by God's Grace, enable him to 
curb the unruly passion. He complains that he can- 
not control his feelings, — they are like a fretful steed, 
too much for his rider, and they bear him away whither 
they list. Granted (for argument's sake) that he can- 
not control his feelings ; — can he not control his words ? 
Can he not, if he pleases, refrain from speaking ? or if 
he pleases, utter a conciliatory expression ? Let him 
go into society, after prayer for the aid of God's Spirit, 
with a stedfast resolution, that, come what may — slight, 
or ridicule, or insult — and feel what he may,— he, at all 
events, will not say a single irritating or irritable word. 
I will suppose him, by God's Grace, to keep his reso- 
lution. What is the result ? The result is, that the 
trial, if it comes at all, does not last very long. If the 
other party is not really bent on provocation, the whole 
feeling passes off, — perhaps veers right round in another 
direction — as this want of intention becomes apparent. 
And if he is bent on provocation, he soon wearies of it 
when he is met by soft words that turn away wrath,— 
he begins to respect the principle which he instinctively 
feels to be at the root of this moderation, — perhaps he 
ends by acknowledging the fault, and expressing re- 
gret, — an issue which ensures an entire conversion of 
feeling towards him in the mind of the other. Where- 
as what would an angry retort have done ? It would 
simply have ministered fuel for irritation to both 
minds. 
. Again, as regards secret pride. Pride is a swelling 



on the Government of the Tongue. 157 

haughty steed, who will bear away triumphant all who 
minister occasion to it. And occasion will be minis- 
tered to it by words — by talking too much about self — 
whether in the way of self-gratulation, or in the way 
of self-depreciation. I am sure that language of the 
latter description really feeds and nourishes secret pride? 
and if much indulged in, will probably render it un- 
governable. Avoid, by all means, speaking humbly of 
yourself to any one except to Him who seeth in secret. 
The reason is this, — pride is so inwoven into the very 
texture of our nature, that our feelings are very rarely 
indeed humble. Now, if there he humility of expres- 
sion, where there is no humility of feeling, that is the 
worst species of hypocrisy. But humble words are not 
only evil in themselves, — they excite evil. We derive 
a kind of satisfaction, when using them, from the reflec- 
tion that we are humble, — we become inwardly proud 
of our humility. The safest rule (and that which is 
most consistent with courtesy and good breeding) will 
be to obtrude self as little as possible on the company 
— to speak as little as possible about self, in order 
that (oh, hard attainment !) we may think as little as 
possible about self. All words of self-praise, all words 
of self- depreciation, forbidden — if this rule be minded, 
it will prove the restraining of many a spark, which 
else might fall upon and kindle the explosive material 
of pride. 

Again : as to that desire, natural to every man, of 
making himself entertaining and agreeable in the 
society in which he moves. 

This desire, if not restrained, often leads us to say 
things which were better unsaid, — to give point to 
some of our conversation by a jest which is question- 
able, or to be bitterly sarcastic, or, at least, to exag- 



158 Sermon at "Rugby, 

gerat:? and misrepresent the truth. One objectionable 
remark, especially if successful in exciting wonder or 
amusement, is enough to ensnare us. The strong 
desire then becomes, like the horse whose rein is 
slackened, uncontrollable. We must then perforce go 
on in the career on which we have entered, and trick 
out our story with embellishments, without regard to 
the feelings of our neighbour, the interests of truth, or 
the Majesty of God's Presence. Therefore that original 
error, — that first remark, which made the tongue too 
hot to hold, — had better have been restrained. And to 
restrain such remarks is utterly impossible without 
bitting the horse, without exercising a continual re- 
straint upon that little member, which boasteth great 
things. 

I need not dwell, because that is so evident, upon 
the awful ascendancy which unclean desire gains over a 
man who allows himself to use impure language. Such 
a person is indeed, by the practice of telling forth the 
abominations which exist in his heart, feeding and 
pampering a viper, the poison of whose fangs will 
speedily spread itself, to his eternal ruin, through his 
whole soul. This is a subject to be meditated upon in 
secret, rather than to be spoken of in public. Suffice 
it that I have called your attention in that direction, 
and warned those who are willing to give heed. 

It will have occurred, perhaps, to some of you, that in 
inculcating so strict a government of the tongue — (and 
by consequence so continual a watchfulness over it) — 
we have been investing Religion with a garb of gloom 
and austerity, and robbing it of all mirth and lightness 
of heart. I must speak, of course, without fear of con- 
sequences, what the Lord puts into my mouth ; but 
God forbid that I should represent Religion to you as 



on the Government of the Tongue. 159 

at all alien to pure enjoyment or innocent mirth. Wis- 
dom's ways are pleasantness and peace. And let me 
say distinctly, that I am not forbidding any words but 
such as God's Law pronounces to be evil. Innocent 
mirth and gaiety, laughter at that which cannot wound 
another person, and is not wrong, and is not profane — 
so far from being an evil, is in a social (nay, in a reli- 
gious) point of view a decided good. And a dull or 
moping spirit wilfully cherished, would be as contrary 
to the spirit of the Gospel as it is to our natural incli- 
nations. Christ has done all for us, if we be His true 
followers, — has relieved us of the load of guilt, of cor- 
rupt inclinations, of carking care. If the great Burden- 
bearer bore those burdens for us, why are we to bear 
them ourselves ? Why, if I can only realize these great 
things, — why should not a well of joy and thankfulness 
spring up within me, which shall make the heart ever 
merry and the countenance ever shining, and the mind 
accessible to all possible enjoyments which are pure ? 

Besides, one of the objects for which the tongue was 
given, is recreation ; and this object would be frustrated, 
and life would not be relieved of its manifold little 
burdens, if conversation were not occasionally bright- 
ened with merriment. We have been advocating 

CONTINUAL WATCHFULNESS, NOT CONTINUAL SEEIOUS- 
NESS, OE WORDS. 

Finally :• some will think that I have been dealing 
after all with petty duties, and that your time might 
have been occupied better with matters of more mo- 
ment. In that case I must go back to my authorities : 
— " If any man among you seem to be religious, and 
bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, 
this man's religion is vain." I have not said any thing 
more serious about words than St. James and Our 



160 Sermon at Rugly. 

Blessed Lord say. Besides, the notion of not dealing 
with small duties is philosophically unsound. Life is 
made up of small things, small duties, small sins, small 
temptations, small troubles, small fragments of happi- 
ness. It has been much upon my mind lately, that to 
neglect these same small things is the height of folly, — 
that it is only through acquitting ourselves well on 
small occasions, that we can make a sure progress in 
holiness, and discipline ourselves for grappling with 
poverty, bereavement, calls of Providence, arduous 
posts of responsibility, and all the great occasions of 
life. The man who waits for a great emergency, or a 
fine opportunity, to show and approve his religion, is in 
a fair way, I think, never to have any religion at all. 
And therefore it was, that last Sunday I warned you 
to give heed to the good conduct of each day, as it pre- 
sents itself, — assured that from the good conduct of 
days, the good conduct of years would follow. 

And therefore it is, that I now warn you to give 
heed to your words. I tell }^ou, on God's Authority, 
that care over the words is the very secret and key of 
care over the life. Here I recommend you to bestow a 
great deal of study and attention, — with the assurance 
that it will not be thrown away. And, above all, I 
recommend you to pray, that Grod would so fill your 
soul at every moment with the thought of the Majesty 
of His Presence, as to make the restraint of wrong 
words an easy task to you — ay, and to convert that 
restraint into an act of continual Worship. 

THE E1NTD. 



GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN S SQUARE, LONDON. 



August, 1867- 

A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS 

SELECTED FROM THE PUBLICATIONS OF 

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LOISTDOUST, OXFORD, J^NU CAMBRIDG-E; 

AND SOLD BY 

POTT AND AMERY, NEW YORK. 



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A 



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logy : a Handbook of Religious Information respecting 
the Holy Bible, the Prayer Book, the Church, the Ministry, 
Divine Worship, the Creeds, &c, &c. Second Edition. 
18mo. $1 50c. 

Blunt's (Bey. J. H.) Christian Yiew of 

Christian History from Apostolic to Mediaeval Times. 
Crown 8vo. $3 25c. 

Blunt's (Bey. J. H.) Principles and 

Practice of Pastoral Work in the Church of England. 
Second Edition, revised. Crown 8vo. $3 75c. 

Contents : — Chap. I. The nature of the Pastoral Office. 
—Chap. II. The relation of the Pastor to God. — Chap. III. 
The relation of the Pastor to his flock. — Chap. IV. The 
Ministry of God's Word.— Chap. y. The Ministry of the 
Sacraments, &c. — Chap. yi. The Visitation of the Sick. — 
Chap. VII. Pastoral Converse. — Chap. VIII. Private In- 
struction. — Chap. IX. Schools. — Chap. X. Parochial Lay 
Co-operation. — Chap. XI. Auxiliary Parochial Institutions. 
—Chap. XII. Parish Festivals.— Chap. XIII. Miscel- 
laneous Responsibilities. 

"By far the best of such works as we at present possess." — 
Guardian. 

"The tone is all that it should be." — Christian Remembrancer. 

"Carefully and honestly carried out." — Churchman. 

" A book with a strongly marked individuality Eeally 

a handbook." — Literary Churchman. 



THE PUBLICATIONS OF MESSES. EIVINGTON. 5 

Bright's (Rev. W.) Faith, and Life: 

Readings for the greater Holidays, and the Sundays from 
Advent to Trinity ; compiled from Ancient Writers. Second 
Edition. Small 8vo. $2 25c. 

Bright's (Rev. W.) Hymns and other 

Poems. Small 8vo. $2. 

Burton's Benefit of the Sacrament of 

the Lord's Supper Explained. New Edition. 10c. 

Campion's (Rev. W. M.) and Rev. W. J. 

Beamont's- Prayer Book Interleaved. Second Edition. 
Small 8vo. $3. 

" An excellent publication, combining a portable Prayer Book with 
the history of the text and explanatory notes, which we are glad to 
see has reached a second edition." — Spectator. 

"This book is of the greatest use for spreading an intelligent 
knowledge of the English Prayer Book, and we heartily wish it a 
large and continuous circulation." — Church Review. 

" The work may be commended as a very convenient manual for 
all who are interested to some extent in liturgical studies, but who 
have not time or the means for original research. It would also be 
most useful to examining chaplains, as a text-book for holy orders." — 
Church Times. 

"This is without exception the most useful and thoroughly 
complete ' Guide to the Prayer Book ' we have yet seen, and it is not 
only a marvel of condensation, but also a miracle of arrangement." — 
Literary Churchman. 

" « The Prayer Book Interleaved ' is just the sort of manual that 
the Church will approve. The notes and explanations are in the 
best possible taste, while the preface of the Lord Bishop of Ely is 
both appreciative and commendatory." — Contemporary Revieto. 

Clissold's(Rey.H.) Lamps of the Church; 

or, Rays of Faith, Hope, and Charity, from the Lives and 
Deaths of Eminent Christians of the Nineteenth Century. 
New Edition. Crown 8vo. $1 50c. 



O BOOKS SELECTED FEOM 

Communion Office (The), with Prayers. 

By a Layman. Tenth Edition. 32mo. 60c, 

Companion to the Lord's Supper (A). 

By the Plain Man's Eriend. Fifth Edition. 35c. 

Cox's (Miss) Hymns translated from the 

German. With the Originals in German hy Gerhard, 
Lnther, Angelus, Wiilffer, and others. Second Edition, 
revised and enlarged. Small 8vo. $2 25c. 

"Regarded as translations, the hymns are admirable throughout. 
But, apart from this, the English versification is, in a large proportion 
of cases, so flowing, so spirited, and so easy, that the merely English 
readers will enjoy them almost as much as those who compare them 
line by line with their parallel pages in the German." — Literary 
Churchman. 

"Having her free choice among the German hymns, Miss Cox 
chose, as a rule, the best ; and her translations bear the test to which 
she has subjected them, of printing them face to face with the 
originals/' — Guardian. 

" The author, guided by the mature taste of the late Baron von 
Bunsen, has selected for translation some of the very finest hymns in 
the German language, and rendered them into English with admirable 
feeling and accuracy." — Daily News. 

" An acceptable volume to all who take an interest in hymnology. 
As translations, these hymns deserve our high commendation, while 
they are equally deserving of praise as specimens of English verse. 
The selection is judicious." — Quiver. 

Cruden's Concordance to the Old and 

New Testament. New Edition. 4to. $12. 

Denton's (Rey. W.) Commentary on the 

Lord's Prayer, Practical and Exegetical. Small 8vo. $1 50c. 

"We have great satisfaction in commending it to all classes of 
readers as very perfect and excellent of its kind throughout." — 
Ecclesiastic. 

" We have seldom perused a book of this sort with greater pleasure 
and profit than the little work now before us. The work is one of 
singular completeness and finish." — Guardian. 



THE PUBLICATIONS OF MESSES. EIVINGTON. 7 

Evans's (Rev. R. W.) Bishopric of Souls. 

Fourth Edition. Small 8vo. $2. 

Evans's (Rey. R. W.) Ministry of the 

Body. Second Edition. Small 8vo. $3. 

Eyes and Ears ; or, The History of one 

who was Deaf and Blind. Thirty-fourth Thousand. 10c. 

Eyre's Rite of Confirmation Explained. 

Fourth Edition. 15c. 

Giles's (Archdeacon) Village Sermons, 

preached at some of the Chief Christian Seasons, in the 
Parish Church of Belleau with Aby. Small 8vo. $2. 

Goulburn's (Dean) Thoughts on Personal 

Keligion ; being a Treatise on the Christian Life in its Two 
Chief Elements, Devotion and Practice. Tenth Edition. 
Small 8vo. $1 25c. 

Goulburn's (Dean) Introduction to the 

Devotional Study of the Holy Scriptures. Seventh 
Edition. $1 25c. 

Goulburn's (Dean) Family Prayers, 

arranged on the Liturgical Principle. Third Edition. 
$1 25c. 

Goulburn's (Dean) Acts of the Deacons ; 

being a Commentary, Critical and Practical, upon the 
Notices of St. Stephen and St. Philip the Evangelist con- 
tained in the Acts of the Apostles. Small 8vo. $2 50c. 

Goulburn's (Dean) Farewell Counsels of 

a Pastor to his Flock, on Topics of the Day. Small 8vo. 
•1. 
" A volume of sound, earnest, and affectionate sermons." — Church 
and State Review. 

"Candour, temperance of expression, and true Christian feeling- 
characterize them throughout." — Literary Churchman. 



8 BOOKS SELECTED FEOM 

Goulburn's (Dean) Sermons preached 

on Various Occasions during the last Twenty Years. Third 
Edition. Small 8vo. $1 75c. 

Goulburn's (Dean) The Idle Word: 

Short Religious Essays upon the Gift of Speech. Fourth 
Edition. $1 25c. 

Goulburn's (Dean) Short Devotional 

Eorms, for the Exigencies of a Busy Life. Second 
Edition. 60c. 

Goulburn's (Dean) Manual of Confirma- 
tion ; with a Pastoral Letter on Eirst Communion. Fifth 
Edition. 50c. 

Goulburn's (Dean) Office of the Holy 

Communion in the Book of Common Prayer : a Series of 
Lectures delivered in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, 
Paddington. Third Edition. Small 8vo. $1 75c. 

Gould's (Rev. S. B.) Account of the 

Most Celebrated Preachers of the 15th, 16th, and 17th 
Centuries ; with Outlines of their Sermons, and Specimens 
of their Style. Post 8vo. $2 50c. 

"A most readable volume, fall of curious matter." — Spectator. 

" Since the days of Dr. Maitland's well-known papers on the Dark 
Ages, nothing so racy and amusing has been brought to light from 
that deep mine of thought as this book of Mr. Gould's/' — 
Ecclesiastic. 

" A very suggestive volume, and ought to be of great service to 
the preacher." — Churchman. 

" Clergymen will find much that is suggestive in regard to their 
pulpit work." — Clerical Journal. 

Gurney's (Rev. J. H.) Sermons chiefly 

on Old Testament Histories, from Texts in the Sunday 
Lessons. Second Edition. §2 50c. 



THE PUBLICATIONS OF MESSES. EIYINGTON. V 

Gurney's (Rev. J. H.) Sermons on Texts 

from the Epistles and Gospels for Twenty Sundays. Second 
Edition. $2 50c. 

Gurney's (Rev. J. H.) Miscellaneous 

Sermons. $2 50c. 

Gurney's (Rev. J. H.) Sermons on the 

Acts of the Apostles. Small 8vo. $3. 

Harris's (Rey. G. C.) Church Seasons 

and Present Times : Sermons preached at St. Luke's, 
Torquay. Small 8vo. $2 50c. 

Heathcote's "It is Written;" or, The 

Catechism Teaching from Scripture. Fourth Edition. 50c. 

Help and Comfort for the Sick Poor. 

By the same Author. Fourth Edition. 65c. 

Heygate's (Rev. W. E.) The Good 

Shepherd; or, Christ the Pattern, Priest, and Pastor. 
18ino. $1. 

Hymns and Poems for the Sick and 

Suffering : in connexion with the Service for the Visitation 
of the Sick. Edited hy the Eev. T. Y. Fosbery, M.A. 
Sixth Edition. $3. 

This volume contains 233 separate pieces, of which about 90 
are by writers who lived prior to the 18th Century ; the rest 
are modern, and some of these original. Amongst the names 
of the writers (between 70 and 80 in number) occur those of 
Sir J. Beaumont — Sir T. Browne— Elizabeth of Bohemia — 
Phineas Fletcher — George Herbert — Dean Hickes — Bp. Ken — 
Quarles— Sandys — Jeremy Taylor — Henry Yaughan — and Sir 
H. Wotton. And of modern writers — Mrs. Barrett Browning 
— Bishop "Wilberforce — S. T. Coleridge — W. Wordsworth — 
Dean Trench — Eev. Messrs. Chandler — Keble — Lyte — Monsell 
and Moultrie. 



10 BOOKS SELECTED FEOM 

Heygate's (Rev. W. E.) Care of the 

Soul ; or, Sermons on Points of Christian Prudence. 
12mo. |2 50c. 

Hook's (Dean) Book of Family Prayer. 

Seventh Edition, revised and enlarged. 18mo. $1. 

Hook's (Dean) Questions and Answers 

on Confirmation. Seventh Edition. 10c. 

Illuminated Edition of the Book of 

Common Prayer (An), printed in Red and Black, on fine 
toned paper ; with Borders and Titles designed after the 
manner of the 14th Century by E. R. Holmes, P.S.A., and 
engraved by 0. Jewitt. Crown 8vo. $7 50c. 

Jackson's (Bp.) The Christian Character : 

Six Sermons preached in Lent. Seventh Edition. Small 
8vo. |1 50c. 

James's (Rev. Canon) Devotional Com- 
ment on the Morning and Evening Services in the Book of 
Common Prayer; in a Series of Plain Lectures. Second 
Edition. 2 Vols. 12mo. $4 50c. 

James's (Rev. Canon) Evangelical Life, 

as seen in the Example of our Lord Jesus Christ. Second 
Edition. 12mo. $3 50c. 

James's (Rev. Canon) Christian Watch- 
fulness, in the prospect of Sickness, Mourning, and Death. 
Eighth Edition. $2 75c. Also, a Cheap Edition. $1 50c. 

James's (Rev. Canon) Comment upon 

the Collects appointed to be used in the Church of England 
on Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year. Fifteenth 
Edition. 12mo. $1 75c. 



THE PUBLICATIONS OF MESSES. EIVINGTON. 11 

James's (Rey. Canon) Happy Commu- 
nicant ; or, The Soldier Armed : a True Story. Second 
Edition. 12c. 

Jones's (Rey. Harry) Life in the World : 

Sermons at St. Luke's, Berwick Street. Small 8vo. $2 50c. 

Jones's (Rey. Harry) Priest and Parish. 

Elegantly printed in square 16mo. $3. 

Kennaway's (Rey. C. E.) Comfort for the 

Afflicted : selected from various Authors. With a Preface 
by the Bishop of Oxford. Twelfth Edition. $2. 

Lee's (Archdeacon) Eight Discourses on 

the Inspiration of Holy Scripture. Fourth Edition. 8vo. 
$6. 

Lee's (Rey. F. G.) The Words from the 

Cross : Seven Sermons for Lent and Passion-tide. Small 
8vo. U 25c. 

Libri Precum Publicarum Ecclesise An- 

glicanse versio latina, a G-ulielmo Bright, A.M., et Petro 
Goldsmith Medd, A.M., Presbyteris, Collegii Universitatis 
in Acad. Oxon. Sociis, facta. In an elegant pocket volume. 
|2 50c. 

Liddon's (Rey. H. P.) Sermons preached 

before the University of Oxford. Second Edition. 8vo. 
$4 50c. 

Liddon's (Rey. H. P.) Eight Lectures 

on the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, con- 
sidered mainly with reference to recent assaults upon the 
Doctrine ; being the Bampton Lectures for 1866. 8vo. 

$7. 



12 BOOKS SELECTED FEOM 

Lyttelton's (Lord) Private Devotions for 

School-boys ; with Eules of Conduct. Fifth Edition. 25c. 

Maitland's (Rev. Dr.) The Dark Ages : 

a series of Essays intended to illustrate the state of Religion 
and Literature in the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth 
Centuries. Third Edition. 8vo. $5 50c. 

Maitland's (Rey. Dr.) Essays on Subjects 

connected with the Reformation in England ; reprinted 
with additions from " The British Magazine." 8vo. 
|6 50c. 

Marsh's (Bishop) Comparative View of 

the Churches of England and Rome ; with an Appendix. 
Third Edition. Small 8vo. |2 75c. 

Massingberd's (Rey. F. C.) Lectures on 

the Prayer Book, delivered in the Morning Chapel of Lin- 
coln Cathedral in Lent, 1864. Small 8vo. $ 1 25c. 

Melyill's (Rey. Canon) Selected Lectures 

delivered at St. Margaret's, Lothhury, 1850-52. Small 
8vo. $2 75c. 

Mill's (Rey. Dr.) Analysis of Bp. Pearson 

on the Creed. Third Edition. 8vo. $2. 

Monsell's (Rey. Dr.) Parish Musings ; 

or, Devotional Poems. Eighth Edition, elegantly printed 
in small 8vo. $1 25c. Also, a Cheap Edition. 75c. 

Moore's (Rey. Daniel) The Age and 

the Gospel : Four Sei'mons preached at the Hulsean Lecture, 
1864. With a Discourse on Final Retribution. Crown 
8vo. $2. 



THE PUBLICATIONS OF MESSES. EIVINOTON. 13 

Mozley's (Rey. J. B.) Bampton Lectures, 

1865 : on Miracles. 8vo. $5. 

"Mr. Mozley's Bainpton Lectures are an example, and a very fine 
one, of a mode of theological writing which is characteristic of the 
Church of England, and almost peculiar to it. The distinguishing 
features, a combination of intense seriousness with a self-restrained, 
severe calmness, and of very vigorous and wide-ranging reasoning on 

the realities of the case Mr. Mozley's hook belongs to that 

class of writings of which Butler may be taken as the type. It is 
strong, genuine argument about difficult matters, fairly facing what 
is difficult, fairly trying to grapple, not with what appears the gist 
and strong point of a question, but with what really and at bottom 
is the knot of it." — Times. 

" There is great brightness and beauty in many of the images in 
which the author condenses the issues of his arguments. And many 
passages are marked by that peculiar kind of eloquence which comes 
with the force of close and vigorous thinking ; passages which slime- 
like steal through their very temper, and which are instinct with a 
controlled energy, that melts away all ruggedness of language. 
There can be no question that, in the deeper qualities of a scientific 
theology, the book is thoroughly worthy of the highest reputation 
which had been gained by Mr. Mozley's previous writings/' — Con- 
temporary Review. 

Office of the Most Holy Name (The) : a 

Devotional Help for Young Persons. 18mo. 90c. 

Old Man's Rambles, The. Sixth Edition. 

18mo. $1 75c. 

On the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 

By the Plain Man's Friend. Ninth Edition. 18c. 

Packer's (Mrs.) Agatha ; or, Sketches of 

School Life; and The Black Sheep. Two Tales. With 
Illustrations. Small 8vo. $1 50c. 

" Two tales which young people will be sure to enjoy The 

comic illustrations will make children of an older growth buy the 
volume." — Reader. 

"The descriptions both of place and person are most vivid, and 
lightened up with a fine sense of humour. It contains some clever 
etchings." — Guardian. 



14 BOOKS SELECTED FEOM 

Parkinson's (Canon) Old Church Clock. 

Fourth Edition. Small 8vo. $2. 

Parry's Infant Christian's First Cate- 
chism. Sixth Edition. 12c. 

Pepys's (Lady C.) Thoughts for the Hur- 
ried and Hard-working. Second Edition. 50c. 

Pepys's (Lady C.) Morning Notes of 

Praise. Second Edition. $1 50c. 

Philipps's Your Duty and Mine. Second 

Thousand. 50c. 

Philipps's Seven Common Faults. 

Twelfth Thousand. 50c. 

Philipps's Things Rarely Met with. 

50c. 

Philipps's Standing and Stumbling ; being 

the three previous books bound together. $ 1 25c. 

Pigou's (Hey. Francis) Faith and Prac- 
tice: Sermons at St. Philip's, Eegent Street. Small 8vo. 
1 2 50c. 

Prayers for the Sick and Dying. By 

the same Author. Fourth Edition. $1. 

Sickness ; its Trials and Blessings. 

Eighth Edition. $1 25c. 



THE PUBLICATIONS OF MESSES. EIVING-TOK. 15 

Wheatly on the Book of Common 

Prayer. Edited by G. E. Corrie, D.D., Master of Jesus 
College, Cambridge; Examining Chaplain to the Lord 
Bishop of Ely. 8vo. $4. . 

Williams's (Rev. Isaac) The Psalms in- 
terpreted of Christ : a Devotional Commentary. Vol. L. 
Small 8vo. $2 75c. 

Williams's (Rey. Isaac) Sermons on the 

Characters of the Old Testament. Second Edition. $2 75c. 

Williams's (Rey. Isaac) Female Charac- 
ters of Holy Scripture ; in a series of Sermons. Second 
Edition. Small 8vo. $2 75c. ' 

Williams's (Rey. Isaac) Devotional Com- 
mentary on the Gospel Narrative. Small 8vo. Each 
$.2 25." 

Sold separately as follows : — 

Thoughts on the Study of the Gospels. 

Harmony of the Evangelists. 

The Nativity (extending to the Calling of St. Matthew). 

Second Year of the Ministry. 

Third Year of the Ministry. 

The Passion. 

The Resurrection. 

Williams's (Rev. Isaac) Sermons on the 

Epistle and Gospel for the Sundays and Holy Days through- 
out the Year. Second Edition. In 3 vols, small 8vo. 
$8 25c. 

%* The Third Volume, on the Holy Days of the Church, 
may be had separately. $2 75c. 



16 BOOKS SELECTED, &C. 

Williams's (Rev. Isaac) Beginning of the 

Book of Genesis ; with Notes and Eeflections. Small 8vo. 
$2 25c. 

Williams's (Key. Isaac) Plain Sermons 

on the Latter Part of the Catechism ; being the Conclusion 
of the Series contained in the Ninth Volume of " Plain 
Sermons." 8vo. $2 75c. 

Wordsworth's (Archdeacon) New Testa- 
ment of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the 
original Greek ; with Notes, Introductions, and Indexes. 
New Edition, in Two Vols., imperial 8vo. $35. 

Separately, 
Part I. — The Four Gospels. 
Part II. — The Acts of the Apostles. 
Part III.— The Epistles of St. Paul. 
Part iy. — The General Epistles and Book of Eevelation. 

Wordsworth's (Archdeacon) The Holy 

Bible ; with Notes and Introductions. Imperial 8vo. 

Vol. I.— The Pentateuch. $16. 
Vol. II. — Joshua to Samuel. $9 50c. 
Vol. III.— Kings to Esther. $9 50c. 

Wordsworth's (Bp.) Catechesis ; or, 

Christian Instruction preparatory to Confirmation and 
Eirst Communion. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. $1 50c. 

Zincke (Rev. F. Barham) On the Duty 

and the Discipline of Extemporary Preaching. Crown 
8vo. $2. 



GILBERT AND RIYINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON. 



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